Five Nights at Freddy's Hotel
by Macarons and Muffins
Summary: A classic pizzeria, reinvented as a "child friendly" hotel. Six new animatronics have joined the old classics. Not one, but two security guards have been hired to watch over the place at night. The hotel is ultra safe and kid friendly- nothing could possibly go wrong. Except, why are the guests forbidden from leaving their rooms after midnight? Slightly AU, set after FNAF 1.
1. Prologue

**So, Five nights at Freddy's has officially taken over my life. I tried to resist it. (Well, a little bit, anyway.) But it has cast me under its spell, and I am growing increasingly obsessed with it. So, the time has come for me to write a fic about it.**

**I am not Scott Cawthorn. I don't think I could ever have come up with an idea like that.**

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><p><em><strong>Prologue<strong>_

_Welcome to Freddy Fazbear's new, kid friendly hotel funland!_

_Be greeted by our cast of highly equipped animatronic friends! All your favourites from **Freddy Fazbear's pizza** have returned, along with six- yes, **six**- new friends! Stay in a luxurious room, swim in a fun pool under the watchful eye of our new water-proof poolside display, Sammy the Shark! Eat some of our famous pizza in our dine in restaurant while a band of characters entertains you! It's the ultimate family friendly destination!_

_Meet our animatronics:_

_There's Freddy Fazbear, the loveable bear who will welcome you to our hotel!_

_Bonnie Bunny and Chica Chicken, our singing friends who will entertain you while you eat!_

_Foxy the Pirate Fox, in our all new and updated pirate cove!_

_Carl the Cat and Roger the Raccoon, who will greet you in the hallways!_

_Doug the Dog and Harold the Hamster, who will make playtime in our new playground extra fun!_

_Sammy the Shark, who splashes about in our new waterproof pool display!_

_And, of course, everyone's friend Leo the Lion!_

_As this is a child friendly hotel, we ask you abide by these simple rules to make everyone enjoy their stay!_

_-No alcohol_

_-No illegal substances_

_- No smoking_

_-No outside food in the restaurant_

_-No physical altercation_

_- And no leaving your rooms between the hours of 12 am and 6am. If there is an emergency, press the red button on your door and we will be happy to help, but do NOT leave your room unless given permission by the hotel staff. We wouldn't want people walking around waking the children up at night, would we?_

_Now, relax and enjoy your safe*, child friendly stay!_

_* As usual, Fazbear's entertainment is not responsible for death or dismemberment._

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><p><strong>So, does this fic sound OK? It's going to be following five nights in which two new security guards are working at the hotel. Plus, while I've added new animatronics, I've kind of scrapped the toy ones from FNAF 2. The new ones in my fic will be designed like the original animatronics, because I think that style is creepier. And yes, Golden Freddy may make an appearance ;)<strong>

**I know this probably won't get any reviews, but I'd like to thank anyone who reviews and since I've already written most of the first chapter, I hope to get that up soon.**


	2. Employment

**Oh, wow! I am extremely overwhelmed by the positive response I have gotten for the p****rologue for this fic. Seriously, thank you so much. I can only hope that**

**the rest of this fic does not disappoint. Because this is the beginning of the fic, this is going to be quite a long author's note and I know how ridiculously tedious those can be, so feel free to skip it if you want.**

**To answer some of the questions I have received about this fic in reviews or messaging:**

**- Who will the guards be? I have toyed with different ideas over and over and rewritten so much. I worked with two OCs, an OC and Mike, and OC and Jeremy, Mike and Jeremy, Mike and Fritz smith... Eventually after some time I decided on this; one of the two guards will be an OC. Now, I am not the kind of person who wants to use as many opportunities as I can to add original characters into fanfiction. There is a very fine line between a well written OC and a Mary Sue or Gary Stu, one that is all too easy to cross. So I am going to try my hardest _not_ to make my OC a Mary Sue or any form of self insert, and I would most definitely appreciate feedback if anyone feels my OC is poorly written or too "perfect". As for the other guard? He will be a very familiar face, and you will find out soon enough just who he is. And the guard that I have not decided to use in this fic will definitely be making appearances.**

**-Am I going to use any of the toy animatronics? Hmm. This wasn't my original intent, because my opinion is that the original style of animatronic is darker and more sinister than the toy ones, but now after working out some of the plot, they might just make an appearance at the end.**

**-How long is this going to be? I am not entirely sure, but reasonably long.**

**Anyway, those are some of the basic questions and I have dragged out this author's note for a little too long. Thank you to everyone who reviewed, read, alerted and favourited this fic, and I hope you enjoy this chapter. Constructive criticism will be welcomed, but flames for the sake of flaming will not.**

**I do not own the rights to Five Nights at Freddy's.**

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><p>"<em>Hello?"<em>

_His footsteps echoed as he made his way down the hallway, each sound sending tremors down his spine._

_It was a hotel. No harm could come to him. The rooms nearby were filled with people sleeping softly, peacefully._

_And yet, there was a lingering sensation in the air, leaving him with the feeling that he was being watched. It made his skin crawl, and the hair on the back of his neck prick up. The beam of his torch slid over the rows of numbered doors, and in the dim light they seemed like rows of jail cells, endless and ready to consume him..._

_There was a sound behind him, muted and yet distinct. It reminded him of footsteps, though it was somewhat heavier and slower. It made every inch of his body lock into place, and his hands clenched into tense fists around his torch. He had an idea of just who had made that noise, but he was hoping, praying, that he was wrong..._

_He turned, and the breath froze in his throat. A sinister grin gleamed at him from across the darkened hallway, eyes glinting with malice in the light._

_His breath became ragged pants. He fumbled for the torch, but his hands shook and it dropped, clattering on the floor._

_"No, no, no..."_

_The battery compartment of the torch split from it, and the batteries skittered across the floor, the room plunging into darkness._

_A heavy footstep, then another, and he could not move, was paralysed with fear, but they couldn't hurt him, surely, when so many people slept in the rooms just next to him..._

_._

_.._

_..._

_"That's the first security guard done for." The voice was unsurprised. Indifferent. The toe of a shoe prodded the form splayed across the floor, before a sigh rang out._

_"Call maintenance. This needs to be cleared up before the guests wake up." There was a beat. "And we need to hire a new guard. You know the drill."_

_"I think we need to rethink the idea of two. One to patrol the halls, one to man the cameras. It gives them more chance of survival."_

_Another pause, then a resigned sigh. "Maybe. But we would have to make the contract very precise. We couldn't have anyone blabbing if their partner was attacked, could we?"_

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><p><strong>POSITION WANTED: NIGHT SECURITY GUARD AT FREDDY FAZBEAR'S HOTEL. NO EXPERIENCE NECCESSARY.<strong>

**Two positions vacant.**

**Safe, comfortable conditions. Shifts from Midnight to 6 am each night. Call the following number to apply.**

Life was decidedly unlike a movie, for many reasons. In a movie, when a person had been fired from their job, another one would spring up easily. Mike would know- just a year ago he had wasted weeks of his life, laid on the couch, watching movies over and over until the glow from the television screen burned into his eyes. The movies he had watched were not his usual fare, but rather a blend of cheap comedies and even cheaper romances, all with plots so similar that to his mind, possibly since it was fatigued with lack of sleep, they blurred together into an endless stream. His former favourites, horror movies, had been out of the question. The thought of a single ounce of horror after the ordeal he had encountered made his nightmares return with full vigour, and so he had barely let himself leave the lounge room of his apartment, living off water, packets of store brand chips and two or so hours of sleep a night.

But those days, one of the darkest periods of his life (second only to one week that he preferred not to think about) were long gone. It had been almost a year, and after some time he had picked up the pieces. His weight had restored, after plummeting dangerously from stress, and he managed to lull himself to sleep and dodge the nightmares as much as he could. His parents, though both shocked at the change that had come over him and curious as to why he refused to tell them what had happened, kindly lent him some money to survive on for rent. But there was one issue looming over him; a job. He could not live on his parents' kindness forever, and since he was fired from his previous job at... _that place_, which he preferred not to use the name of, jobs just weren't open to someone who had been fired. This was where life differed from the movies; someone who had been fired, and from a 'reputable children's restaurant', no less, was generally frowned upon in the trade, especially when the less than glowing report from his previous job accused him of tampering with company property (not that it was untrue, but that so called 'company property' had been very deserving of such adjustments.). It was even difficult to get a job as security guard in a run down mall after that, and Mike just didn't have the expertise to go into a serious business like accountancy or law or something like that.

So, for the past six months, he had been making ends meet working in what he felt was his last resort; at a greasy hamburger chain. Flipping burgers, shoveling fries and serving irritating customers with long winded demands (_'No, I want my burger stacked with the two patties on top of each other and between the lettuce and the tomato with ketchup on the top of the top pattie and mustard on the bottom of the bottom one... Yes, I want fries with that but fresh ones, not ones that have been sitting there for any longer than five minutes... No, I ordered diet coke with ice, not coke zero with ice!'_) had become his life, and Mike loathed it. But any job, boring and frustrating as it was, had to be preferable to the one he had just come from.

That was, until he found himself fired again.

He hadn't been fired, technically. It had been a redundancy, not a dismissal. But Mike suspected that since he had been fired from his previous job at a restaurant that he was the first one on their list to be made redundant- that, and since he was older than the teenagers working there, they had to pay him more than minimum wage. Or perhaps he was just bitter. Either way, he was out of pocket and our of a job once more, forced to live on the cheapest food he could afford and skimp on necessities until he found work once more, a task far easier said than done.

This morning, Mike was routinely flipping through the paper, desperately seeking some form of advertisement that would save him from the debt and the back rent looming over him. He flicked on the television, slumping down on the couch and picking at his cereal- dry, since he was cutting back on expenses like milk- as he scoured the job advertisements. He flicked a page over, and was met with a giant article, brightly coloured and ostentatious.

"Position wanted," He muttered idly as he read the bold letters. "Night security guard..."

No.

The bowl of cereal slipped from his hands, making a loud clatter on the floor and sending store brand cornflakes scattering across the room. He dropped the newspaper down on the couch as if it was a venomous snake, trying to calm himself down. He was strong. He had survived a week in absolute hell and forced himself to be confident and cocky about it. Just seeing an advertisement for it would not harm him.

But it was hard to force himself to calm down when the own subject of his nightmares grinned- or rather, _sneered_- at him from the newspaper. That face, that _damn face_, with its bulbous nose and blue eyes that, despite only being an image printed on paper, gleamed out at him, as though staring right into his soul. Mike could not stop glaring back, resisting the urge to tear the paper in half. _Freddy Fazbear_ himself, in all his disgusting glory.

But... _how_? Last Mike had heard of the awful Fazbear chain, it had closed down. But now, as he scanned the article, too struck with a mix of fury and intrigue to look away, it had been rebooted, and as a _hotel_, no less. A hotel? The news made Mike feel as though his stomach was filled with lead. If there were guests staying, with those _things_ walking

about at night...

His hands found their way to the newspaper once more and he grasped it, prepared to tear it up once more. A thousand thoughts, or even a million, ran through his mind, all accompanied by their own emotions. It was ironic, and cruelly so, that he was looking for a job when the very company that had first fired him were looking for employees.

Employees. A lump rose in Mike's throat, though he tried to force it down. Employees, more people drawn to the hotel like cattle led to the slaughter, set in front of the animatronics unprepared. Mike had been gifted with the help of the man he had deemed "phone guy", but since he was pretty much certain that man had died, then who would be there to help them? How would they know the brutality of the animatronics? The managers would not tell them- of that, he was certain. Unless whatever mangled programming that turned children's entertainment into murderers had been fixed, in which case the new security guards would be safe...

A snort rose in Mike's throat, his eyes trailing back down to the paper, where the image of Freddy's menacing smile made his skin crawl. He remembered, far too well, his third night on the job, when the power had run down and Freddy's menacing face had appeared at the door, a haunting melody surrounding him. He had been saved, the clock grinding to six am mere seconds before what would have been certain death, but despite himself the grinning face of the bear haunted him, more than any of the other animatronics. There was no way that, looking at the image in the newspaper, Freddy's "quirks" had been fixed. Those blue eyes, though they were nothing more than a picture, stared at him with far too much malice and intelligence than a simple animatronic, who wished only to please children, would.

Mike tossed the newspaper aside, letting his head slump into his hands. The fact that Freddy Fazbear's was reopening- and as a hotel, no less- had drained any positivity from his mood, and he felt as though it had undone his months of trying hard to get over the ordeal he had endured at the pizzeria. He wanted to push it to the back of his mind, to forget about it and get along with his life. But something kept him, and he felt as though all his memories of those seven hellish nights were suffocating him now, pressing down and forcing him not to move. There would be a new security guard- two, in fact, which Mike was unsure whether or not this new development would be a blessing or a curse- and they would be unaware of the demonic natures of the animatronics. And how on earth would they keep them from attacking the guests? They needed someone who knew how to survive the animatronics.

Mike froze, feeling as though his heart had skipped a beat.

"They need a security guard with experience."

He said the words aloud without thinking, shuddering as they echoed around him. And he realised, with a strange feeling almost like numb horror, that they were true. If there was any way that the security guards were supposed to survive their time at Freddy Fazbear's, then they would need to be guided by someone who knew all the strategies necessary to stay alive for the most gruelling six hours a night.

Someone like him.

But... No. Mike cut that thought off briskly, his fingernails digging into his skin as he gripped his forehead tensely. Staying for more than one night at Freddy's had been the biggest mistake he had ever made. Staying the entire seven had been the biggest mistake that_ anyone _had ever made. So what kind of insane idiot would he be to return to a job that made cleaning the inside of a dumpster seem like heaven?

Not to mention that he had been_ fired_ from that job. Mike knew that it was possible to return to a job you had been fired from, but that it was also extremely rare, and not to mention degrading. There was no way that he would ever let himself plead with a potentially sadistic company for his job back, no matter how much it could save the lives of other security guards. No way. Absolutely not. Freddy Fazbear's was a place that, whether pizzeria or hotel (or diner, as he had been lead to believe it was in its earliest days) deserved to be shut down for good, and whoever was running it deserved jail time for allowing people to risk their lives at the hands of the animatronics. The thought of this made Mike sigh bitterly, gripping his hair tightly as he remembered his failed attempts to get Fazbear's investigated. There was not enough "proof", the tired-looking police officer had told him blankly, not even making eye contact, and it was clear to him that they had not believed his story, let alone cared enough. And there was no way that Mike could prove it, unless...

It clicked in his head, and he groaned loudly, slumping down further. It was times like this that he wished he could afford beer more often. He wished, so desperately, that he had not seen the advertisement in the paper, because now a terrible idea had planted itself in his brain and stuck there, refusing to move.

Freddy Fazbear's needed to be taken down, and as soon as possible. Mike needed proof of the animatronics' hostility and the full extent of it before anyone would properly listen. And whoever was doomed to work there at the time needed some form of guidance, unless they wanted to experience being crammed violently into a metal coffin. Two positions were available at the hotel- and Mike needed a job. This was all disgustingly convenient, as if fate was trying to direct him back to the source of his worst nightmares.

Mike tried to force himself not to think on it. He had been fired from the place, for goodness' sake, and not only that, but returning could land him a far more sinister fate. But despite his protests, he had the sinking feeling that he would be returning to Freddy's..

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><p>"Kate, you can not keep doing this to us."<p>

Kate Fitzgerald let out an infuriated huff. As she had expected, her parents simply did not understand how she felt right now. Yes, she was what many would deem a spontaneous person, rarely thinking before she acted. But she would never admit to herself that she did not think through the consequences of her actions; she preferred to think of it as 'going with the flow.'

"What's the issue?" She scoffed, deliberately ignoring the sigh that issued from her mother on the other end of the phone. Flopping down on her bed, Kate began to flick through pages on the internet, holding the phone to her ear with her shoulder.

"The issue, young lady, is that you need to take some responsibility-"

"I am." Kate cut her mother off bluntly, flipping the phone from one ear to another. "I'm doing what I think is best for MY life. And college was just holding me back..."

"So you dropped out?" Her mother' voice was not angry- she had grown used to dealing with Kate's whims- but just... Frustrated, and tired. "After one semester?"

Kate shrugged, though her mother could not see it. College had been, in her opinion, a severe disappointment. Having fully expected the glamorous party life complete with a new boyfriend each day and constant events, reality had been like a slap in the face; the people there were far more studious than she had been lead to believe, and social events were more sparse than to her taste. So, following the pattern that she always had, Kate had promptly dropped out before her first semester was through. Besides, she told herself, there was no way she would enjoy whatever boring jobs were on offer anyway. A college degree would lead her into something dull and restricting, and where was the fun in that?

"Yes." The tone she used made it seem as though that was the obvious solution, and there was another sigh from her mother's end.

"How are you ever going to get a job, Kate?"

This did not faze Kate, who let out a confident laugh.

"Who needs a college degree for a job these days, Mom?" She countered swiftly. "It's not like I'm going to be a doctor or something like that."

There was a noise of irritation from the other end of the line, and Kate could imagine her mother rubbing her head like she always did when they were having this sort of conversation.

"You don't have to me a doctor, but my goodness, Kate, you have to do something." Her mother answered, after a long pause. "You're intelligent, even though you like to hide it, and you're throwing all your talent away. You can't live off us forever, you know. If you don't go back to college, then you have to get a job, because your father and I are not going to pay your rent just for you to stay in that apartment doing nothing."

"You mean, you're cutting me off?" The tone of Kate's voice escalated, from calm to nearly hysterical in just a few seconds. She gazed around her apartment frantically- it may have been small, but with money from her parents over the last 6 months she had customised it the way she wanted, and the idea of losing that money from her parents was horrifying.

"Not cutting you off fully," Her mother sighed. "But yes, if you don't find a way to reenrol in college then you will need to get a job to pay your own rent."

Kate's mouth hung open in shock at this.

"But... That's not fair!" She burst out. "You can't do that!" She could not believe what she was hearing. A small part of her mind reasoned that it was fair, but she shoved that thought away. It was not fair, she decided, that she would either have to return to college, which was dull and pointless as far as she was concerned, or get a job which would probably be difficult because of her lack of credentials. Still, she told herself stubbornly, anything was preferable to going back to college- especially since that was what her parents wanted her to do- so...

"I'll get a job then." She snapped. There was a stunned pause on her mother's end of the phone.

"Kate, wouldn't you rather go back to college?" her mother reasoned after a few beats.

"No." Kate's answer had an and-that-is-that finality. "Cut me off, then. I'll get a job and pay my own rent and do whatever the hell I want!"

"Okay, then." Her mother knew better than to argue with Kate when she was acting like this- it was her daughter's nature to do things like that out of both spontaneity and stubborn will, and no matter how much she could plead with Kate, once her daughter's mind was made up it was made up without any thought towards the repercussions and she would stick with it until after a little amount of time she grew bored, and would move onto the next idea she had. Kate's mother could only hope that this would be like most of the other whims Kate had, and that after a while she would grow bored and return to college.

"Fine." Kate said sourly. "That's settled. I'll start looking today."

"Alright," her mother told her softly. "Your father sends his love."

"Yeah, right." Kate scoffed at the last remark. She ended the call, throwing her phone down on her bed and sighing. She knew her mother was only "doing what was best for her", but she refused to look at it from her mother's point of view. All she saw was that her mother was forcing her to actually do something with her life, when she would have much preferred to live as she had been for the past few weeks (until her parents had discovered her dropping out, that was); lounging around, staying up well into the morning and staying asleep well into the afternoon, eating microwave noodles and going for late night drinks. But her mother obviously didn't think that was a "responsible" way to live, and so Kate would have to get a job. Kate didn't understand her mother very well- they may have looked strikingly similar, sharing the same slender yet round facial shape, wide hazel eyes and thick dark hair, but in personality they were polar opposites. Kate wondered if she was more like her father, but shuddered at the thought. Her father had been distant for as long as she had known him; he was a workaholic, who she barely saw most of the time and who rarely stopped to talk to her. She wondered if he would even care that she'd dropped out, and doubted it.

So. Kate flexed her arms out, before biting her lip. She was going to have to look for a job now. The thought made her grimace, but she reminded herself that it _had_ to be better than college was. Obviously, "proper" jobs were out of the question, so with a resigned sigh she went into the lounge room, picking up the newspaper that lay on the coffee table with the rest of her mail. Kate didn't think she had ever read a newspaper in her life, but she would have to now. After spending a good few minutes trying to find the job section, she finally located it and began searching the ads.

However, none of them seemed to appeal to her. She was allergic to dogs, and therefore the job at the pet shop was out of the question. She was a vegetarian, so the idea of working at any fast food joint repulsed her. She didn't have a degree in psychology, she didn't speak Chinese, she didn't know how to work with children... Dozens of job advertisements met her eyes, and all disappointed her. Finally, after almost giving up on today's paper, one caught her eye.

"Night security guard?" She frowned as she considered this. She was practically nocturnal anyway, so that was a plus for the job. And, as she looked at the ad curiously, she saw the three words she had hoped to see; 'No experience necessary.'

Kate's mother had always told her not to rush into things. But Kate completely disregarded that warning, picking up her cell phone almost instantly. She did not stop to read the fine print on the ad, or even research Freddy Fazbear's hotel; if she had, then she would not have taken the job. But Kate was never one to think things through, and so without hesitation she dialled the number listed on the paper.

"Hi, my name is Kate Fitzgerald and I heard you were looking for a security guard..."

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><p><strong>Okay, so that was my first chapter. It was kind of boring, I know, but I wanted to introduce the characters and get the story set up. It'll pick up once the guards are actually in the hotel and stuff. What did you think?<strong>


	3. Welcome to your new job

**Again, thank you for all the reviews to the last chapter! I really appreciate them.**

**Who's seen the trailer for the third game? I am extremely excited for it. The new animatronic looks terrifying and I can't wait for it to be released.**

**To respond to a few more queries I have got:**

**Yes, Kate will definitely undergo character development in this fic. She may be quite bratty now, but she has a long road ahead of her (or a long five nights ahead of her, anyway.) And I have deliberately made her unlikeable at the start.**

**Yes, Kate's last name being Fitzgerald is not a coincidence ;)**

**Yes, Golden Freddy will make an appearance in this fic.**

**I don't own the rights to FNAF.**

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><p>Kate didn't understand what all the fuss about job hunting was. Smiling to herself, she stretched out luxuriously on her sofa, flicking through the channels that were on TV. All those concerns of her parents- and yet, the people she had phoned were extremely eager to give her the job; when she had phoned Fazbear's hotel to apply they had told her that it was as good as hers, and all she had to do was come in and sign a form. Kate did not stop to mull it over and consider any of the warning signs; she did not wonder just <em>why<em> were they practically giving the job away, without any evaluation or asking for any experience- all she cared about was the fact that getting a job was ticked off, and now her parents could get off her back. It may not have been the best paying job, but two hundred and fifty dollars a week was better than nothing; she still had a good few thousand in her bank account from her last month's cheque from her parents, so adding the two and a half hundred each week would probably cover her rent, bills and groceries (plus some _dire_ essentials, like new makeup). Besides, she thought to herself with a smirk, she probably would not be working in that job for any more than a few months. Her parents would probably be buttered up enough that she had "acted responsibly", or whatever rubbish they were trying to teach her, and they would start paying for her rent again.

"I'm willing to bet they'll crumble in two months, at the maximum." Kate chortled, pushing her thick hair back from her face. Possibly the best thing- or, in her mind, the only good thing- about her parents was that her father was reasonably well-off as people went, working as a laywer. This meant that not only was he busy with managing cases and out of Kate's way, but that he would also dish out money to her whenever she begged for it, if only to appease her. Still, her mother who she supposed was more 'responsible' tried to raise Kate to learn the value of money, something that Kate rebelled against at every opportunity.

On impulse, she pulled her phone from her pocket, punching in her parents' home phone number (her mother often forgot to charge her cell phone) and calling; she intended to laud over her parents that she was right, and that getting a job was definitely preferable to going back to college.

"Hello?" A voice replied gruffly. Kate, who had been expecting her mother's softer voice, was startled, her eyes widening.

"_Dad_?" She snorted, after a beat. This was surreal- her father very rarely answered the phone. There was a huff on the other end.

"Oh." he muttered gruffly. "Kate. It's you. Listen, I'm waiting for a call from an important client and my cell is having issues, so make it quick..."

Kate rolled her eyes at this, sinking down into her couch lazily. She was used to her father brushing her off like this, and clicked her tongue.

"Well, you can tell _Mom_ that I have a job now." She raised her eyebrows smugly, voice thick with pride. "So I don't have to go back to stupid college."

There was a pause on the other end, and Kate twirled a strand of her hair around her finger idly as she waited for her father to respond. Then, after a few moments, Kate's father sighed.

"You got a job. Already." It was more of a statement than a question, but Kate answered it anyway.

"Yep." She said, popping the p loudly in a way that she knew irritated her father. "Well, almost anyway. They want me to come in and sign some forms at 3 o'clock today, and then the job is mine. 250 dollars a week, working as a night security guard-"

"As a what?" Kate's father interrupted briskly, shocking Kate; he actually sounded as though he wanted to know, for once. "A _night_ security guard?"

"Yeah, I just said that." she scoffed. "Could you, you know, actually listen? It's a night security guard, and-"

"I don't approve." Her father interrupted her, his voice cold and his tone dark. Kate was stunned for a moment, and then she snorted loudly. This was so typical, she thought- her parents had wanted her to get a job, and now the minute she did...

"Why the hell not?" Kate demanded, straightening up from her slumped position on her couch. "What's the big issue?"

"A night security guard is a dangerous job." He told her, voice fiercer than she had ever heard it; her father normally spoke to her in an uninvested, monotonous way. "I don't approve, Kate."

"Dad, what the hell?" Kate stood up, beginning to pace out of frustration. "It's not going to be 'dangerous'. It's working at a freaking hotel, and I'll be working with another security guard as well. I seriously don't think anything's going to happen. Besides, it's none of your damn business where I work, I'm 19 and if I want to work as a security guard then I _will_."

There was another ridiculously long pause, Kate tapping her foot and waiting irritably for her father to speak again.

"Um, hello?" She snapped into the phone. _He damn well better answer now, or-_

"A hotel." Finally, he replied, and his voice was a little more even. Kate raised an eyebrow.

"Uh, yeah. Why does it matter?"

Another pause. Kate growled in frustration.

"Dad, answer me!" She all but snarled down the receiver. She could hear her father's heavy breathing on the other end, so she knew he was still there, and yet he did not reply. "Dad, if you get all silent again one more time, I'm hanging up." Kate threatened.

"Not a pizzeria?" He asked, and Kate let out an audible scoff at how ridiculous his question was. Why was he asking her _that_?

"No, Dad. It's some 'kid friendly' hotel. Fuzzy Funbear's, or something lame like that..." She crossed the floor, snatching the newspaper from the table. "That's it. Freddy Fazbear's."

She expected her father to sigh, tell her that it was alright and then dully mumble about needing to contact his client, hanging up. But all she heard was a strange, choking noise, and then silence again.

"Dad!" Kate shrieked down the line, before exhaling loudly. "That's it, I'm hanging up."

"No, Kate," her father objected suddenly, his voice suddenly more alive than ever and filled with a strange urgency. "I need to tell you-"

But his words were cut off with a beep as Kate ended the call, tossing her cell phone down. If her father wanted to tell her something (which would be a first, considering he never wanted to tell her anything) then it was tough. She, after all, had warned him that if he fell silent again then she would hang up...

A loud pop song began to blare through the room suddenly, as Kate's phone started to vibrate from where she had tossed it down. Kate glanced down at it, then her face scrunched into a scowl.

_**Calling: Dad.**_

"Ugh. Seriously?" Kate hit ignore promptly. There was no way she was going to talk to her father now, especially since he would probably just be lecturing her about work or something else like that. If he had a problem with where she was working, she decided, then that was _his_ problem and not hers. This job seemed like it would be cushy and straightforward, and nothing her father said was going to change her mind.

* * *

><p>"Well, Mr Schmidt, we're happy to welcome you aboard again! Just come in at around two today and we'll sort out the paperwork!"<p>

Mike did not like this one bit. His heart was beating faster than it ever had before, and his tongue felt thick and heavy. He had forced himself to phone the number advertised in the newspaper, and in a strained voice had told them that he had worked there once before when it was still a pizzeria and been fired, but that he would like his job back.

Mike knew that he needed to return to this job as someone who, for all he knew, could be the only surviving security guard who had ever worked at Freddy Fazbear's. He knew that if he did return it could spare dozens of lives, if he was able to get video proof of the psychopathic animatronics working at the hotel and at the same time aid the other security guard who was working there and hopefully prevent them from being killed. But deep down, he had been hoping, _praying,_ that they would tell him no, that because he had been fired before that they would not re-hire him, or both positions were already filled.

But fate was obviously not on his side. The man he had spoken to on the other end of the phone had been seemingly _delighted_ that he wanted to return, and told him that the job was as good as his now. Mike sighed, forcing his voice to sound calm and collected.

"Great. Thank you."

He hung up the phone, raking a hand through his sandy hair and tugging at it slightly out of frustration. There was still the small hope that the animatronics would be sane, but Mike's gut instincts told him otherwise. He dragged himself to the kitchen, switching the kettle on; he needed a black coffee badly right now. As he drank his coffee, burning his tongue initially and not caring, Mike's nerves subsided just slightly and he began to plan.

If he was going to get enough evidence for Freddy's to be shut down, then that meant he would need a solid amount of evidence of the animatronics' brutality, or he would not be taken seriously. Mike didn't know if the security camera feed was easily accessible, but considering the gruesome pictures that they would most likely have presented of the animatronics stuffing numerous guards into a spare suit, if the phone guy had been right and that was what they really did (mercifully, Mike had just escaped finding out), then he doubted that the security footage would be anywhere that people could get their hands on it and destroy Fazbear's name.

So. That meant that he would need to bring his own device to hook up to the camera feed and record what went on during the night to provide reasonable proof of the animatronics' activity. The only issue with this was that Mike was not exactly a tech-head, so he had no idea how he was going to do that. He cursed audibly, almost dropping his coffee mug out of irritation. He hadn't thought this through well enough, and it was pointless to go back to a job where he risked his life every second without getting anything out of it. Unless...

Mike placed his head in one hand, considering this. He didn't know how to record the security feed from the hotel's cameras to his own device, but what if he set up his own security cameras? Not that he could afford multiple cameras, but he did have one somewhere, and he could easily ask to borrow his parents'. Then, assuming that the office was the same design as the old one back at the pizzeria (he shuddered at the memory of the cramped, darkened room and the memories it brought back) Mike could set up a security camera above each entrance and monitor the animatronics as they lurked outside the office. It seemed like a reasonable plan, one that he hoped desperately would work.

That brought him to the other issue, however.

Mike vividly remembered, as much as he tried to block those memories out, the phone calls he got during his first stint in the office. And the 'Phone guy' had told him specifically that certain animatronics became more active as the week progressed. Mike knew that in order to get the hotel investigated, or at the very minimum have the animatronics deactivated, he would need to provide proof of all of the animatronics' activity during the night. Which meant, he realised regretfully, that he would probably have to stay until the 6th night.

If he survived.

Mike sighed, staring out the dingy window. His apartment didn't have the best view; it looked almost directly into the kitchen window of one of the adjacent apartments. Inside, he could see the family that lived across from him sitting down to have lunch; they were a young couple, with a daughter who could not have been older than six years old. He usually tried to shut the blinds or avert his eyes, not wanting to intrude on a stranger family's life, but he could not help watching them as they ate their food. Though he could not hear them, he could see that the little girl was talking animatedly, her face split into a sunny smile. Her parents were watching her, and the love that radiated from their eyes was so strong that Mike could almost feel it, tangibly, through the thick walls and pane of glass that separated them. He felt a twist of some unfamiliar emotion in his stomach at this, and quickly looked away.

If he died when he returned to Freddy's, which he knew was a very real possibility, then he would never get a family like that. He would never come home from a _proper_ job (one not filled with sadistic animals) to a welcoming family home, would never see his future wife- whoever she would be- walk down the aisle, would never see his own pale blue eyes reflected in the face of a child, his child. The sudden realisation of this, something he had never even considered during his first time at Freddy's, almost drove him to phone the manager of the hotel and take back his application, but just as his hand twitched towards the phone, he stopped himself. Another profound realisation entered his mind, knocking the first one off its course.

How many of the night guards who had worked at Freddy's, whether diner or restaurant or now a _hotel_, had families? A spouse or a partner who would be grief stricken to discover that they had died, parents who would mourn the loss of their baby, siblings who would be devastated to get a vague call about their death without any details. Children who would grow up without a parent, all because of a hellish chain and _evil_ (there was no other word for it) animatronics? Mike took a deep breath to steel himself, staring ahead.

He couldn't let anyone else die, or go into that nightmare of a job unprepared. He had to do it; it was imperative that he get rid of Freddy Fazbear and his crew of homicidal friends. And at least this time, he knew what he was in for.

* * *

><p>Three o'clock. Kate's car, one that she had begged off her parents just last year, turned down a street and Kate was presented with her first glimpse of Freddy Fazbear's hotel.<p>

"You have got to be kidding me." She snorted, shaking her head. "Childish, much?"

From the outside, the hotel reminded her more of a prison than anything; there was a large, ridiculously high brick wall surrounding the building, and a pair of thick, wrought iron gates at the front, though they were currently open. It would have looked morbid, except for one thing; a sign, trimmed with neon lights, arched over the entrance. It was tacky in the extreme, with a picture of a brightly coloured cartoon bear grinning toothily down at her above the name of the hotel.

"Oh." It clicked in Kate's head. She remembered seeing the picture of the tacky bear in the advertisement in the newspaper, though she had not paid much attention to it then. "Freddy Faz_bear._ Right."

Pulling her car into the parking lot, Kate parked in the closest space- a handicapped parking space, actually, but Kate rarely cared about that; as long as it was convenient for her, she tended not to mind if things inconvenienced others. Once you got past the weirdly secure gates and the tacky sign, the hotel actually looked quite decent; there were large grassy grounds, and a rather modern looking one-storey building, which was not as luxurious as the hotels Kate preferred, but was probably serviceable. The only issue was the banner draped over the entrance of the hotel, which featured more of the cartoon animals, this time a yellow thing that Kate assumed was meant to be a chicken, and a purple rabbit. She raised an eyebrow, surveying this skeptically.

"Well, they said it was kid-friendly." She muttered drily, before pushing a set of frosted doors open and striding into the lobby of the hotel. It looked pretty ordinary, with a reception desk at one end and doors leading off to hallways on either side, but Kate instantly pulled a face. She knew she should not have expected anything particularly fancy from a 'kid-friendly' hotel, but it _definitely_ wasn't the kind of hotel that she would stay in; there were no valets, bellboys or bar, and if there was one thing that Kate loved, it was to be pampered.

At the reception desk, a young receptionist sat, clicking away at her computer. Kate cleared her throat loudly, folding her arms. The woman looked up, before smiling widely at her.

"Welcome to Freddy Fazbear's hotel! Fun for kids and adults alike!" She recited, and Kate rolled her eyes at this. "Are you checking in?"

"Like I'd ever check in to a place like this." Kate said bluntly, approaching the desk. "Listen, I'm here for the night security job. Are-"

"**Welcome to my hotel**!" A metallic voice sounded out behind her, and it immediately made Kate tense up. She whirled around, before every muscle in her body locked into place.

"What the hell is_ that_?"

Kate tried to remain composed- she was not the type of person who allowed people to see that she was scared- but what she saw was something completely... Unnerving. Standing just a foot away from her was a tall, metal creature- some kind of odd robot, that had to be much more than six feet high. From the terracotta coloured pelt covering its body and the rounded ears, she guessed that it was supposed to be a bear, and with a velvety top hat and bow tie she recognised the bear from the picture on the entrance. There was a huge difference though, which was that while the bear on the logo was cute (tacky, but 'cute' nonetheless) there was something about this bear that she instantly disliked; its grinning mouth full of teeth was far too large, and there was a gleam in its vivid blue eyes that didn't seem right.

"That's Freddy Fazbear!" The receptionist behind her chirped. Kate would have given her a disdainful look, but for some reason she could not bear to turn her back on Freddy. She was surprised she hadn't noticed the monstrous thing when she first came in.

"How childish." Kate's voice was full of contempt. In response, a deep laugh issued from somewhere deep inside the robot, and with a few jerky movements he tipped his hat to her. She stared at him, trying to ignore the chill that went down her spine. The receptionist laughed an irritatingly high-pitched laugh at this. The woman was suddenly enthusiastic, though not two minutes earlier she had seemed thoroughly bored.

"He's a sweetheart, isn't he?"

Kate narrowed her eyes, inspecting the eyes of the bear, which seemed to be staring right back at her somehow. Sweetheart was not exactly the word that came to mind.

"No." Kate was never one to suppress her opinion, no matter how offensive it made her seem. "He's pathetic."

Pathetic was not the word that came to mind either, but it was better than admitting that she found the bear creepy. Wasn't this supposed to be a "child-friendly" hotel?

"**Aw, but I just want to be your friend!**" Freddy's voice boomed from the depths of the mechanical suit, and Kate shuddered, forcing herself to turn around. However, she faltered after a moment, trying her hardest not to look back.

"Did he just reply to me?" She asked the receptionist slowly. The woman shrugged, tossing her bleach-blonde hair back and grinning at Kate.

"He does that sometimes." She brushed off with another flick of her platinum hair, as though it was the most normal thing in the world. "What were you after, again?"

Kate blinked for a few moments, before composing herself.

"I'm here for... UGH!" She snapped, as her phone began to blast out its ringtone from her bag. Her father had been trying to phone her ever since their conversation earlier, and each time she had hit ignore; she had no idea what his problem was, and didn't care either way. Without a second thought, she hit the ignore button on her phone, before shaking her head.

"Yeah. Anyway. I'm here for the night security guard position?"

"Oh." For a moment, something akin to pity lapsed across the woman's face, before her features smoothed back out into the welcoming receptionist smile again. Kate shook it off.

"You must be the other one." The woman told her. "The man who you'll be working with came here just an hour ago to sort things out too."

"And?" Kate muttered drily- why was she supposed to care? Then again, she supposed she would need to tolerate whoever she was working with...

"The manager's office is there," The receptionist gestured cheerily to a nondescript door Kate had not noticed at first. "I'll ring him, and he should be with you shortly."

Kate nodded, the pointed heels of her shoes clicking on the tiled floor as she crossed it. The moment her hand touched the doorknob, Freddy's voice rang out again, and Kate was furious with herself for jumping.

"**Goodbye. See you soon!"**

She turned automatically, glaring at him. The bear was still grinning widely, but there was something sinister in his eyes that made her glare deepen.

"Hopefully not." Kate muttered, shoving the door open. The manager's office was nondescript, and just as she had expected; a small room, with a desk in the middle covered with stacks of paperwork and potted ferns trailing on the windowsill. She took a seat in the chair on one side of the desk, fiddling with her nails while she waited. Behind the desk, Kate noticed, there was a large mirror, and on habit she began to scrutinise herself, something she did every time she passed a mirror. Her hair was a little windswept, one of the downsides to having thick, wavy hair like she did, and she began to tweak it while she waited for the manager to appear.

"Where is he?" Kate muttered irritably; she detested being kept waiting, even though it had been less than three minutes. But as her hands raked through the shoulder-length strands of her hair in an attempt to smooth them out, the image in the mirror began to shimmer oddly, as though it was a mirage. Kate stiffened in her chair, eyebrows shooting up.

"What the-"

Her words were cut off; her throat constricted in shock as the image began to transform in front of her, hideously twisting and morphing itself. A colour began to twist through her dark hair, replacing it with a strange, faded yellow. Her pale skin sprouted a fuzzy pelt, face widening from its usual slightly rounded shape into something larger and chunkier. Her eyes seemed to shrink back into her skull, until they were no longer wide and hazel but replaced by dark, empty sockets. Kate opened her mouth to scream, and as she did the full lips in her reflection split across her face, hanging open in a wide grin that cut her jaw in half. The familiar sight of her face was gone, replaced by something monstrous.

Kate was frozen, staring in horror at the image, unable to move. Her scream that had built up in her throat died on her lips, voice box suddenly unable to make a sound. The face in her reflection reminded her of the bear out in the hall, but it was even more disturbing; it was eyeless and dirty, something that looked suspiciously like blood smeared around the mouth, which was not brown but a dirt-encrusted colour that may once have been gold.

Then her jaw unlocked suddenly, and a shrill scream pierced the air. Kate scrambled up, her chair toppling over and hitting the floor with a crash. The door behind her flew open and she whirled around in shock, sure that some other grotesque form would be there-

But it wasn't. A small man stood there, face plastered with a smile.

"Are you alright, Miss?"

"No." Kate snapped, pulling herself from the floor, unable to force herself to turn around and see the apparition again. "What the hell is THAT?"

Her hand pointed wildly in the direction but the man's eyes remained impassive.

"I believe it's a mirror."

Kate's brow furrowed, and she turned slowly. She was still half expecting to see the hideous bear face, but a familiar sight greeted her; her own face, and though her eyes were narrowed with confusion and her hair was windswept again from her struggle earlier, there was nothing out of place. She raised a hand tentatively, feeling her own face. Smooth skin, long nose, glossy lips. Not a trade of fuzzy pelt or dirt anywhere.

But... How...

"It wasn't like that before," she insisted fiercely. "It was huge, and creepy..."

But the ridiculousness of her words echoed around her head. Things like that did not exist, and Kate was extremely furious with herself. She must have had Freddy on her mind, and have been thinking irrationally. Yes, that had to be it... Kate forced herself to swallow the lump that had formed in her throat, and though her heart was still racing she composed herself.

"Never mind." She scowled, and the man smiled wryly.

"I assume that you're Miss FitzGerald?" He asked briskly, moving around the desk and sitting on the other side. "I am Mr Stone, the manager."

"Oh." For some reason, he did not look the way Kate had envisioned. She was the kind of person to buy into stereotypes, and from the way he had sounded on the phone Kate had imagined the typical manager stereotype- balding, pot-bellied and red faced. This man was tiny, possibly shorter than her (and she was only short herself) and too thin; haggard, as though her had been losing weight from stress. His hair was gelled tightly, but strands were peeling away and flopping over his forehead, which was lined heavily and his eyes were ringed with black. Everything about him seemed to radiate an aura of stress and nerves, though Kate pushed these observations aside; why should she care about some random guy, even if he was probably going to be her boss?

"So, what do you need to talk about?" Trying to appear calm, Kate stretched out lazily in her chair. Mr Stone smiled slightly,

"We just need you to fill out this form, and then you have the job as far as we're concerned." He gave a half-hearted shrug. "Not many people are willing to apply for a night job, so the fact that you applied is qualification enough."

Pulling a sheet of paper from the hefty stack on his desk, he handed it to her. Kate snatched a pen from a pot on the desk (knocking the pot over so it scattered pens across the floor as she did but really not caring), and skimming the first few lines of the paper before signing the bottom with a flourish. People had warned her in the past to read everything she signed, even the fine print, but Kate stubbornly ignored their warnings; she didn't have time to bother with reading line after line of boring legal stuff. Mr Stone smiled brightly, but there was something she couldn't quite pinpoint in his eyes.

"Alright. May I be the first to welcome you to your new job at Freddy Fazbear's hotel!"

He extended a bony hand, which Kate stared at.

"What, you want me to shake it?" Her voice dripped with contempt at th very idea, and she did not care that this was her boss she was acting coldly to. Mr Stone frowned, withdrawing his hand.

"Alright, then. I'll give you what you need now..." He reached behind himself, pulling a few items from a cabinet behind him. Kate was presented with a handful of papers, a torch, and a uniform that made her grimace.

"You'll be working with one other security guard, a man by the name of Mr Schmidt, I believe, and you'll be starting as soon as possible- is Monday alright?"

Kate shrugged at this. "Yeah, whatever."

"Now, here is your map of the building-" he gestured to a folded piece of paper. "Your guidelines and what is expected of you, and your schedule. The hours are midnight until 6 am for a minimum of five nights a week, and one of the security guards will be expected to patrol the corridors while the other monitors the cameras. You can sort all that out with Mr Schmidt on Monday..." He moved over to the torch. "That's for patrolling the corridors, and here is your uniform..." He held up a crisp cotton shirt, which was white trimmed with a garish purple colour and plain trousers in the same shade of purple. "I assume you're a size small?"

Kate nodded, eyeing the clothing disdainfully.

"They're fashionable." She noted sarcastically, and Mr Stone let out a laugh that was clearly false.

"Now that we've got all that sorted out..." He fiddled with his fingers for a few moments, before looking her in the eyes. "Would you like a tour of the place?"

"That depends." Kate leaned back in her chair, cocking an eyebrow at him. "Are there more of those creepy robot things?"

There was another false laugh. "The animatronics? Oh yes, plenty of them. You can meet them all, if you like."

A strange feeling twisted Kate's gut at the thought, but she tried to ignore it. After all, they were nothing but a bunch of wires and circuits, she told herself. They would be completely harmless.

* * *

><p><strong>Okay, there was a lot of Kate this chapter and not as much Mike, which kind of bothers me. There will definitely be more of him next chapter! Plus, we will get to meet the rest of the animatronics, and the two guards will begin their first night at Freddy's. I know this chapter had a bit more filler and setting up the plot, but I promise that this is the last one. Next chapter, there will be a LOT more of the animatronics, so hopefully it should be more interesting.<strong>

**I hope everyone enjoyed this and that it was at least semi-decent...**


	4. Intelligent eyes

**I'm sorry that this chapter is really**** late, but I had a four-day course at the hospital and would get home after 8pm on most of these days and be too exhausted to write anything then, so it was kind of a setback in my updating schedule. Then, I had a ton of work to do after that and it just kept pushing my writing further down the list of priorities, so I didn't get enough long writing sessions in. Anyway, on with the fic!**

**I don't own the rights to Five Nights at Freddy's or the FNAF franchise.**

* * *

><p><em>"The animatronics? Oh yes, plenty of them. You can meet them all, if you like."<em>

Kate didn't "like", not at all. The robots- no, _animatronics_, as Mr Stone put it, were not exactly her cup of tea. The bear, Freddy, made her uneasy enough, and she did not like the idea of meeting any more of them either. Kate narrowed her eyes at him, trying to remain composed.

"What's the deal with all of those..." She threw her hands up in overdramatic air quotes. "'Animatronics', anyway." Mr Stone's eyebrows raised in what seemed to be surprise, but there was something else in his eyes when he mentioned the animatronics that Kate tried to ignore.

"Didn't you ever go to Freddy Fazbear's pizza as a kid?" He asked this as though it was something all children did, but Kate barely had any memory of it. She snorted at his question.

"Please. My birthday parties were much better than some stupid pizza joint." She boasted. "I used to go on skiing holidays, you know."

_Before those idiots cut me off,_ She thought sourly, the memory of it leaving a bitter taste in her mouth. To her irritation, Mr Stone did not seem impressed by that little fact; his face remained impassive.

"Well, the animatronics were really popular with the children a long time ago, in Fredbear's Family Diner which the restaurant used to be. Then in '87 it turned into a pizza joint, and then it closed and reopened in '93 as a pizza joint. The kids loved the animatronics so much that when the pizzeria closed last year, we thought we'd bring the animatronics back for the hotel, and bring some new guys in as well to make it even more fun! And the kids already love the new guys so much..."

Kate raised an eyebrow, completely lost as to how the children could love any of the animatronics- if the others were half as odd as Freddy Fazbear, then she disliked them already.

"That's... Great." She said drily, folding her arms. "But yeah, I guess I could use a tour of the place."

Not that she had much of an interest in looking around the hotel, but she supposed it was something to do. Mr Stone gave her a wavering smile, standing up and smoothing his heavily gelled hair back into place.

"That's great. Then, let's start, shall we? After all, one of the guards is going to need to patrol the hallways, so it'll be good if you know your way around the place, in case..." He shook his head briskly, cutting off whatever he was about to say. "In case you get lost, that is."

He moved around the desk surprisingly quickly, and Kate followed him back into the lobby, trying her hardest not to meet the gaze of Freddy Fazbear, who seemed to be staring at them as they left the office. Mr Stone led her into a hallway that looked like a typical hotel hall; rows of numbered doors and nondescript carpet covering the floor. It looked bland compared to the garishly decorated outside of the building, and was rather ordinary, except...

**"Meow."**

Kate jumped again, before exhaling loudly when she saw another animatronic standing at the end of the hallway. This one was possibly even creepier than Freddy Fazbear himself; he (or she, or_ it_- Kate didn't know what pronouns to use) was less bulky than the bear and more streamlined, the slightly fuzzy pelt covering its body a deep black. Its eyes were narrowed, gleaming a bright green, and pointed ears on its head and a long tail twitched slightly.

"This is Carl the Cat," Mr Stone gestured to the cat animatronic briskly. "One of the new guys, and already really popular with the cat loving kids!"

Kate scrutinised the cat animatronic. She liked cats herself, but not necessarily ones that were around seven feet tall with anthropomorphic bodies and gleaming eyes. The cat's mouth opened, and another guttural meow issued.

**"Meow. Welcome to the hotel! Can I show you to your room?" **

He blinked slowly at her, and Kate shifted further away from him slightly. One paw extended towards her, and Kate fought the urge to leap behind Mr Stone- _that_ would definitely be embarrassing.

"Uh, can we move on?" She demanded, and with a shrug he led her down the hallway. The rest of it was nondescript; there were the odd snatches of sound from the surrounding hotel rooms, a blare of a television or a child crying, and occasionally a guest popped out from one of their rooms. But none of them seemed bothered at all by the cat animatronic that was staring at them from the end of the hall, something Kate did not understand at all. As they walked, Kate hissed irritably when her phone began to ring once more.

**_Calling: Dad_**.

"No!" Kate yelled furiously, slamming her hand down on the phone and rejecting the call once more. _Normally he doesn't want to speak to me at all, now he's calling me all the time? _

"Is there are problem, Miss Fitzgerald?" Mr Stone asked her politely, and Kate huffed, shoving her phone back into her pocket.

"Just some idiot calling me all the time." she muttered, tossing her hair back. "Okay, show me the rest of this dump."

Mr Stone raised a thin eyebrow at Kate's lack of verbal filter, but did not protest. Instead, he gestured to a door reading **_STAFF ONLY_** at the end of the hall.

"Through there's parts and services, where they look after all the animatronics..." He shrugged. "I don't think I need to show you anything in there. There's just spare heads and suits, and Leo of course..."

Kate whirled around to face him, narrowing her eyes.

"_Leo_?" She demanded. Mr Stone's face lapsed for a moment, as though he was irritated that he had given something away.

"Leo the Lion, one of our animatronics," he cleared his throat slightly. "He's out of order now, though, because he started malfunctioning. Anyway," he quickly changed subjects, before Kate could think on what he'd said any further. "Let's go into the kitchens, shall we?"

Pushing the staff only door open, he led Kate down a small hallway, pointing out a handful of doors as he did.

"There's one of the doors to your security office," he told her. "I don't think I need to show you in there, because you'll be spending all your time in there at night, anyway."

Pushing open another door, Kate's nose was instantly assaulted with the heavy, rich smell of pizza, and she wrinkled her nose slightly.  
>"Our kitchens!" Mr Stone gestured around, a note of pride in his voice. "People still love our pizza..." He paused, before gesturing to a large platter of pepperoni pizza on one of the counters. "I would offer you a slice, but you know..." he scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, while Kate waited for him to elaborate.<p>

"No, I don't know," she said coldly after a moment, and Mr Stone laughed at this.

"Oh, we just don't want you getting sleepy or anything! You know how comfort food like Pizza can make a person want to take a nap."

Kate thought that sounded like quite a pathetic excuse for not offering her a slice, but since she didn't want any pizza anyway- she was a vegetarian, which meant that pepperoni was not exactly her best friend- she chose to let the thought drop.

"Oh!" One of the pizza chefs, who was busy kneading out a large circle of dough, looked up as Mr Stone passed him, before smiling at Kate. "Are you another new security guard?"

Kate gave him a disdainful look, before nodding. "Yeah. Why do you care?"

The chef frowned slightly at her remark, before turning back to his pizza dough, hands steadily working through the thick substance. Mr Stone led Kate through a small doorway, into the hotel's restaurant. It was a room that Kate immediately disliked; from floor to ceiling, it was covered with images of the animatronics; children's scribbled drawings, posters, photos, banners... everywhere Kate looked, there were pictures of Freddy Fazbear and his equally cheesy crew. The room was also noisy, filled with multiple families scoffing down huge slices of pizza, their faces covered with cheese and sauce. It made her stomach turn, and she looked at Mr Stone.

"This place is gross."

He seemed not to her her criticism, pointing at a large curtained stage in front of them.  
>"Look. This hour's show is about to start."<p>

Kate had no interest in watching the show, folding her arms and begrudgingly watching as the velvet curtains on the stage split apart to reveal not one but two animatronics; a purple bunny, and a yellow duck... or chicken... whatever it was, it was wearing a bib, which made Kate's lip curl. She took an instant dislike to the bird; there was something deeply weird about the fact that it had teeth inside its beak. The rabbit wasn't much better, though; its eyes were a fiery red.

"Those are our singing animatronics, Bonnie and Chica." Mr Stone introduced to Kate. "They've been part of the crew since our first location! The kids love them."

Kids hyped up on pizza and soda, Kate thought, would 'love' a puppet made out of toilet rolls and cardboard if someone slapped enough brightly coloured paint on it. That was not, in her opinion, a valid judge of quality.

Assuring Mr Stone that she did not want to stay and watch the hourly show- she had no interest in watching something intended for pre-schoolers- Kate's tour of the hotel continued. Mr Stone led her down another hall of guest rooms nearly identical to the first, except this one was "guarded" by a sly looking Raccoon introduced to her as Roger, his neon yellow eyes enhanced by the deep black mask around them.

"One of the newbies," Mr Stone told her, while Roger's head moved between them almost as though he was listening to her conversation. "But already-"

"Real popular with the kids?" Kate finished for him drily, and he nodded with a low chuckle.

"Shall we go outside?"

Kate didn't really care, but he seemed to take it as a yes. For someone who was so short, Mr Stone seemed to have an immensely long stride, and Kaye struggled to keep up with him. The grounds of the Fazbear hotel reminded her almost of a schoolyard; there was a manicured green lawn covering them (the delicate heels of her shoes stuck in the ground as she walked, and she groaned), and they were bright an open, with a few scattered bushes planted around the place. Just shy of the gates and the entrance to the lobby, there was another stage set up, this one surrounded with vivid purple curtains decorated in stars. A handful of children sat in front of this stage, and Kate wrinkled her nose; she wasn't exactly fond of children. As she watched, the curtains split apart to reveal a painted cartoon seascape, and yet another animatronic, though Kate was not surprised this time. She could not tell what the animatronic was at first, only that it was a rusty colour and skinner in build than the others she had seen, but as they approached she could see that it was canine- from the colour, probably...

"A fox?" Kate begrudgingly asked Mr Stone, whose pointed face lit up at the fact that she actually seemed to be taking interest in something.

"Yes!" He cleared his throat slightly. "Foxy, the pirate fox! And that's Pirate Cove over there."

Kate heard a cheesy pirate song issuing from the stage, rolling her eyes at it and turning away, fully prepared to move on. She wanted to get this tour over with, so she could get home and watch some prime-time TV and start mentally preparing herself for when she would begin work.

"Yeah, yeah. Let's get on with this."

She was led around the side of the building, and a large child's playground looked into view. Kate had to admit that it looked enjoyable for children, and she may have even enjoyed it as a child; slides twisted around a large climbing frame equipped with tunnels, bridges and ladders. A giant set of swings hung from a brightly painted frame, and the sounds of children's laughter bubbled around Kate as they approached it. It would have been "cute", she thought, except for one thing; there were not one but two animatronics lurking around the playground.

"This is Harold the Hamster," Mr Stone hesitated, before patting a portly animatronic on the shoulder. Harold was shorter and rounder than the other animatronics, with a sandy pelt and large teeth sticking out from in its mouth. It opened said mouth, making a strange chewing noise.

"**Hello, kids**!" His voice was high and squeaky, annoyingly grating. Kate had the urge to clap her hands over her ears.

"Ugh," she muttered, before turning away from the hamster. "And what is that... Thing..."

If the hamster animatronic was annoying, then the dog was tenfold; it had a spotted off white and brown coat, and its metal limbs were bent in a strange position. As Mr Stone moved closer, a long metal tongue stuck out from the dog's mouth, and it began to make panting noises.

"I hate dogs," Kate said bluntly, crossing her arms as she appraised the dog. The dog barked out a strange laugh, and Kate gave him a revolted look.

"This is Doug," Mr Stone told her. "He's another one that the kids love."

As if on cue, a child ran from the playground and wrapped their tiny arms around Doug with a squeal. Kate raised an eyebrow, confused as to why a child would want to hug something so... Creepy.

"I don't see how," Kate said frostily, turning her back on the dog with pleasure. "Now, is that all the animatronics, or are there more?"

"There's one more," The manager told her, and she did not suppress her groan. "Sammy, the shark. I'll take you to the pool area so you can meet him, if you like."

But Kate didn't seem to have a choice in the matter; once again, she was forced to keep up with Mr Stone's oddly long stride as he strolled towards a door that led them back into the building.

As she was about to step through the doorway, Kate felt a strange compulsion to turn back. Craning her head over her shoulder, her eyes locked on to the orange ones of Doug the dog. He was standing in that same odd position, his limbs bent as though he was about to catapult off them towards her, and she chewed on her lip slightly.

"Stupid dog," She muttered, forcing herself to turn away and dash after Mr Stone.

They walked back through the hallway "guarded" by the Cat animatronic (Kate tried her hardest to ignore his guttural meows as they passed through) towards a set of frosted glass doors, behind which Kate could hear splashes and children squealing.

"This is the pool area, one of the most popular attractions of our hotel!" Mr Stone seemed extremely proud as he pushed open the frosted glass doors. Kate looked around, trying her hardest not to be impressed. She had expected a small ten foot pool with a handful of worn deck chairs surrounding it, and yet the pool area was surprisingly nice; There was a large, clear pool surrounded by potted palm trees, deck chairs and sun umbrellas, with a waterfall at one end sending sheets of water down into the pool. It was the kind of pool that Kate would have loved to float about it, and she couldn't help thinking that this was an actually decent part of the hotel.

There was a downside, however. There always was,

Standing on a concrete pedestal in the centre of the pool was the final animatronic, which Kate could not help thinking was the most disturbing of them all. It was an anthropomorphic shark, with a long pointed noise and several sharp looking teeth in its mechanical jaws. What was the most unnerving, however, were its eyes; unlike the coloured eyes of the other animatronics, these were completely black and sent a chill down Kate's spine. It completely ruined what would have been a beautiful pool, Kate noted sourly.

"I take it that's Sammy the shark?" She tried to keep her voice haughty and disdainful, as if the shark was just a piece of furniture rather than an exceedingly tall robot.

Mr Stone nodded. "He's probably the most advanced of the animatronics." he informed her. "They've made him waterproof and movement sensitive, so he can actually swim about with the kids if they want!"

"Why would anyone want that?" Kate mused snarkily, trying to ignore the tremor down her spine when the shark's head snapped towards her. Her heart rate increased, and she chided herself for being so stupid.

"Okay. So I've seen all the stupid animatronics. Can we get this tour over with?"

Mr Stone seemed surprised by her hastiness but agreed, pushing open the doors to the pool area and taking them back in to the hotel again. They made their way around the hallway, and back towards Mr Stone's office. As he pushed open the door, Kate thought for a fleeting moment that she saw the terrifying face in the mirror again, but when she blinked it was only her own face, flushed slightly and looking irritated.

"So, are you looking forward to working here?" The manager asked her, his voice dripping with false cheerfulness. Kate gave him a disbelieving look, stunned as to how he would even think that.

"Yes," her voice dripped with sarcasm, but he seemed to choose not to notice.

"Excellent!" he clapped his hands together. "So, we'd like you to start work as soon as possible. Can you do Monday?"

That was only two days away but, Kate realised, the sooner she started this job and got her paycheck, the better. She nodded, and Mr Stone looked oddly relieved.

"That's good. We can't wait to have you aboard!"

Kate picked up her bags and was escorted out the building, slipping into her car.

As she drove home, she tried not to dwell on the eerily intelligent eyes of the animatronics.

* * *

><p>Uniform. <em>Check.<em>

Flask of coffee, extra strong to keep him awake. _Check._

Two video cameras, and tape and wires to keep them above the doorways. _Check. _

Mike rifled through his bag anxiously, double-checking he had everything he needed multiple times. He was already nervous and jumpy, and the night had not even begun yet. He tried not to let his hands shake as he closed his rucksack, pulling it onto his back. His apartment was darkened, the dim bulb in the small entrance providing very little light as he fumbled around in the darkness. He checked his watch- 10 pm. There were two hours until he had to be at the hotel to begin, but he knew that by the time he had caught the bus and grabbed some food for substance from one of the nearby fast food chains, then it would be time to begin work.

A shiver made its way down his spine at the thought, but he gritted his teeth. He was not, under any circumstances, going to let his fear get in the way of what he had to do. He had survived seven nights at Freddy Fazbear's before- he could easily survive five again.

Hopefully.

Maybe.

The issue was, Mike thought to himself with a sigh, that there were _more_ animatronics there- and quite a few more- than when he had worked at the pizzeria a year ago. And more animatronics meant that it would be more difficult to evade them. Mike could only hope that he would be able to figure out each one's different traits and attack patterns before it was too late...

Wanting nothing more than to lock himself in his apartment with a pack of beer and some take-out noodles (Mike could not enjoy takeaway pizza any more after working at Freddy Fazbear's), he stepped out of his apartment, locking the door behind him. The world around him was quiet, very little sound coming from the other apartments in his block apart from the odd snatch of movement and the faint noise of someone's TV. Rather than waiting for the elevator, which was dodgy at best in his building, Mike trudged down the stairs and out into the street, forcing himself not to bolt back inside. He remembered the time before he had worked at Freddy Fazbear's, when he was far more carefree and far less cowardly. But that seemed like a different dimension now, as though the old Mike had never existed as anything other than a dream, a faraway memory.

The bright glow of streetlights illuminated his path as he hurried down the deserted street towards the bus stop. His timing had been good; he arrived within seconds of the night bus pulling up, and clambered aboard, thrusting his pass at the driver.

"Where to?" The man, who looked overtired and thoroughly bored with his job, asked him gruffly. Mike took a deep breath before answering.

"Is there a stop near Freddy Fazbear's hotel?" He knew there was. He had stopped at the hotel what seemed like a lifetime ago to have a tour of the place and sign a contract, and Mike knew from that trip that there was a stop directly outside the hotel. That was a tiny shred of comfort to him; maybe, just maybe if the animatronics were too active, he could duck out the hotel and make his way to the bus. It was a pathetic plan B, but it was some consolation all the same. Granted, there were two animatronics outside, but Mike was grasping at potential escape plans, no matter how flawed they were.

The driver grunted in affirmation, and the doors closed behind Mike with a whoosh. He stumbled into a seat as the vehicle started with a lurch, staring out the window. Mike hated public transport, but he had sold his car earlier in the year in an attempt to repay some of the money his parents had lent him when he was unemployed. It wasn't too bad, though, at night; unlike the day time, when the bus would be crammed full of passengers, the bus was currently empty apart from him and the driver. He stared out the window at the suburban scenery as it blurred past, the trip going a little too quickly for his liking. Finally, the bus stopped with a jolt outside the hotel, and Mike stared gloomily out the window at it for a moment. In the daytime it had seemed (seemed, though he knew that it was a façade) harmless, but the darkness that shrouded the building now paid homage to how sinister it really was. Thanking the driver halfheartedly, Mike stepped off the bus, checking his watch as he did.

It was only quarter to eleven. He still had a good hour or so to kill before he went into the hotel, which was a slight relief. Mike distracted himself by ducking into a nearby fast food chain, one of the few places on the street that was open at this time of night, and buying a black coffee and fries- technically his breakfast, since he had woken up at 9pm. He figured that if he was going to be on alert for six hours, then he needed some sustenance. However, when the food arrived instead of diving into it as he usually would, Mike found himself picking at it, his appetite drained. It was hard to eat when he knew what horrors were awaiting him- he felt like a prisoner on death row, and wondered how anyone could possibly stomach their official 'last meal'. Still, despite his lack of appetite his stomach was growling, so he shovelled a few handfuls of fries into his mouth anyway, though they did not successfully wash out the bad taste that was there. The time seemed to pass far too quickly; the numbers were all but flying by on his digital watch, until to his horror it was already eleven thirty.

_Better get this over with, then._

He knew it was time- time to go to the hotel, so that he could set up his cameras outside the entrances to the office and prepare himself for the horrors to come. Mike stood up, smoothing strands of his wayward sandy hair that had fallen into his eyes back. He dumped the uneaten fries- a good half of them- into the trash, gulping down the last of his coffee and relishing in the sharp, bitter flavour for a few moments, before he made his way to the door.

"Have a good night!"

He looked up, startled slightly (ever since his first time working at Freddy's, Mike had been a lot more jumpy than before.). One of the girls who was working at the joint and busily mopping up the floor grinned slightly at him, and he forced a smile back.

"Thanks!"

He did not tell her the truth- that there was no chance that he would be having a 'nice' night.

* * *

><p>The hotel loomed over Mike, the poster of Freddy that adorned the front grinning down at him sinisterly. Mike exhaled deeply, running a hand through his hair as he stared at the doors.<p>

"I can do this." He muttered, steeling himself. He had managed to survive before, and he would again. Without looking back, he pushed open the doors to the lobby, a little too forcefully than he had intended, so that they swung back loudly. The receptionist looked up, a little startled by his entrance.

"Oh! Mr Schmidt!" She smiled, and Mike was surprised that she recognised him. "Nice to see you again." Her eyes flicked across to a large clock hanging behind her desk, and she let out a slight laugh. "Right on time! At ten to midnight, we'll be locking the doors, so make sure that you and Miss Fitzgerald are ready to go by then." She laughed, though it sounded just a little too cheery to be sincere. "After all, we don't want any of our guests out and about after midnight and waking up the kids, do we?"

Mike smiled wryly, laughing once without humour at this. When he had come in to sign the paperwork officially making him security guard, they had mentioned the _"No one out of their rooms after midnight"_ rule. Mike had connected the pieces immediately; of course they didn't want guests roaming out and about after midnight, when they could run into one of the animatronics. It was a rather poor way of disguising what Mike was pretty sure went on in the hotel for those six terrifying hours, and he wondered why the guests did not get suspicious. As he was thinking this over, however, one of the words the receptionist had said struck a chord.

"Wait... did you say Miss _Fitzgerald_?" His brow furrowed slightly. The receptionist nodded, blonde curls of hair bouncing as she did.

"Oh, haven't you met her?" She asked eagerly. "She's going to be the other security guard. She hasn't arrived yet tonight, though. I think her first name's Kate..."

Mike shook his head slowly, frowning. The name Kate was not significant, but her last name was; he was sure that he recognised Fitzgerald from somewhere, but he could not quite place where. Then again, it wasn't the _most_ uncommon last name there was. He shook his head again, dismissing it for now though he made a mental note to try and remember just who else it was that had that name.

"Well, I'd better get to my office." Mike sighed, trying not to cringe at the thought. As he began to step out of the lobby, however, something caught his eye. He had been intentionally avoiding looking at Freddy, who he knew was positioned in this room, but as he turned slightly he saw the bear from the corner of his eye. The bright overhead light reflected off the bear's blue eyes, surrounding them with an eerie glow. Biting his lip, Mike forced himself to look straight ahead and ignore Freddy for now, making his way down the hallway. There was the cat animatronic there- Carl, wasn't it?- and it let out a deep meow at his presence, but he ignored it and pushed on, down towards the security guard's office. The door- a metal automatic one, he noted with a grimace, just like in the old office- was open, and the room was dark. Just in case there was already an animatronic lurking in the room, he felt for the light switch quickly, relieved when it flicked on to reveal the room was empty. That relief, however, subsided when he noticed- with a pang of painful deja vu- that the layout of this room was a little too similar to the one back in the pizzeria for his liking. Though it was slightly larger now and equipped with two, rather than one, spinning chairs, there was a thick metal door on either side again, and a small desk cluttered with a fan and pictures children had drawn of 'their stay at Freddy's hotel'. There were windows beside the doors again, and Mike hesitantly flicked the lights on and off, views of the corridors outside greeting him. He picked up the tablet that was lying on the desk in front of him, and as he had expected there was the same kind of camera system that he had worked with last time, though this one had far more cameras.

_Ah. Of course_. At the sides of the screen, there were the numbers displaying the time, and how much power he had. This was something that the manager had explained to him when he was briefing him about the job, and Mike had asked about power; since this was a hotel, the power would not simply 'go out', plunging the rooms of the guests into darkness. However, the security office was a different matter; unlike the rest of the building, at night it _was_ hooked up to a generator with limited power. So, Mike thought with a sigh, that meant that he would have to deal with managing his power, _again_.

He checked the time on the tablet, before dropping it onto the desk and jumping up. He had ten minutes until midnight, and if he wanted to get his video cameras hooked up above the doors, then he had better do it now. Pushing one of the swivel chairs out into the darkened hallway, he pulled one of the cameras from his bag, trying to maintain his balance as he stood on the chair and stop it from spinning around. It shifted awkwardly under his weight, and he gritted his teeth, hoping it didn't break as he balanced precariously, searching for a place to fix the camera. His eyes raked the space above the door for a few moments, until he noticed a slight ridge around the frame. It was not the most secure, but he was able to keep it on with copious amounts of duct tape. Carefully climbing down from the chair, he shoved it across to the other doorway, fixing his second camera in the same position and flicking it on. He had fitted them both with the longest-running batteries that he had, and he could only pray that they would hold out for the full six hours. Climbing down, Mike checked the time on the tablet once more, before his brow furrowed.

"Five minutes to midnight," He muttered aloud, leaning back in his swivel chair. This was bad; in just five minutes, all bets were off, and the other security guard- Kate Fitzgerald, he recalled- was not here yet. Frowning, his eyes trained down onto the clock.

_Four minutes to midnight._

This was not even remotely good. Mike envisioned the poor girl, though he did not know what she really looked like, rushing about the hotel in the night, animatronics popping up everywhere and trying to snatch at her- he knew it may have been an exaggeration, but he didn't care; his heart was beginning to pound in his chest as he stared at the doorways, hoping that Kate would appear soon.

_Three minutes._

Mike tugged at his hair anxiously, flicking the light in the doorway on. Nothing. No sign of movement, no sound of feet hurrying down the hall in the darkness. No one was there, and the time in which humans were safe was draining away quickly.

_Two minutes._

Time seemed to be moving at a ridiculously brisk pace now. Mike felt like kicking something in frustration; what was he going to do if-

Quick footsteps began to echo in the corridor on the right side of the office. The relief that washed over Mike was exhilarating; just a minute and a half before midnight, Kate had finally turned up. Her form appeared in the doorway, moving from the darkened hall into the light, shadows dancing across her face. She was petite, short and just slightly curvy, with thick chocolate hair that hung to her shoulders and large green eyes. She would have been pretty, Mike decided, except the expression on her face was heavily laced with disdain and arrogance.

"_Ugh_. Are _you_ the other security guard?" Her voice dripped in disgust, green eyes raking over Mike's form as though he was something hideous spoiling her view. He raised an eyebrow at this.

"Yes. My name's Mike Schmidt." Without thinking, he extended a hand to shake hers, but she smacked it away, startling him.

"I don't do handshakes," She sniffed, dropping an expensive-looking leather bag onto the floor and flopping down in the other swivel chair in the room. Her eyes still seemed to be scrutinising Mike's every move, which he found irritating.

"Okay, so let's get this stupid job started." Kate flicked a strand of wavy hair back from her face, pulling the same flashlight that Mike had received after applying from her bag. "Let's just-"

Her voice was interrupted, however, when there was a loud click from somewhere above them. Her head snapped up quickly, the security guard's hat that she was wearing at a jaunty, impractical angle almost falling off.

"What was that?" She demanded, her voice sharp. Mike felt his heart rate increase, and his skin prickle.

"I think that's our warning," He told her. "It's midnight."

* * *

><p>Kate was late for work. She had set her alarm to nine thirty pm, but had hit the snooze button a multitude of times before finally dragging herself up; she was not one to wake up on call. Even though the time between now and when her shift started was wasting away, Kate dawdled as she got ready, spending a long time in the shower lathering every tangle out of her hair and scrubbing her skin until it was smooth. She may have only been working with one other person in a dingy little office, but Kate refused to leave the house unless she had spent at least an hour getting ready. The face of the designer clock in the hallway told her that it was now quarter past eleven, but although she knew it could take her a good twenty minutes or so to drive to the hotel, she still did not hurry, wasting another ten minutes digging around for food in her fridge. Kate's fridge was hardly ever stocked sufficiently, since she preferred eating out at artistic or all-natural cafés, and she realised that this was another thing to add to the list of reasons why it was unfair that her parents had cut her off; she could no longer afford to indulge her expensive tastes in food.<p>

"Idiots," Kate muttered to herself angrily, fumbling around for something to eat. "Then again, they've got to crumble at some point..."

Eventually, she found a handful of ingredients that would have to suffice for breakfast, and though time was passing all too quickly she took her time eating her breakfast- Kate hated to rush, and if she was late to work then she supposed that her boss would just have to deal with it. She was not going to eat in a hurry, something she _despised_ doing, just so that she could get to work on time. When she had finished her food, she checked the clock and rolled her eyes. She had twenty minutes until she needed to get to work, which meant that there was a good chance that she could turn up late, but this did not bother her- her boss would just have to deal with it. She vaguely recalled him saying something about making sure she was in the office before midnight at all costs, but Kate shrugged this off- what was the worst that could happen if she was five minutes late? Gathering her bag, she took a moment to grimace at her reflection in the large mirror- this uniform was _not_ the kind of thing she preferred to wear- before making her way to her car.

Traffic was mercifully clear, and so Kate reached the hotel with a few minutes to spare. She pushed through the lobby and down the hallway, trying to ignore the animatronics she passed as they greeted her in their deep metallic voices. The hallways were eerily dark at this time of night, and Kate felt a chill trickle down her spine as she gazed into the pitch black coupe. Though she would never admit to having any form of weakness, Kate had always secretly disliked darkness, and so she felt slightly uneasy as she moved towards the staff only door at the end of the hallway, something she could just barely make out in the thick fog of darkness that surrounded her. Pushing it open, she was relieved to see a faint glow of light across from her; at the end of the small staff area, there was the door to the security office, and there was a welcoming light inside. Her footsteps echoed around her as she stumbled across the small corridor, and stepped into the office.

Illuminated by only the dim artificial light of the bulb, the room seemed even smaller, the corners laced with creeping shadows. There was a man already in there- the other security guard, a Mr... Smith, was it? Or Simons, or Smee... Something with an S. Kate didn't really remember his name, but then, she didn't bother with remembering things that were of no direct importance to her. His eyes met hers, but instead of introducing herself Kate used her preferred greeting; she stared at him, scrutinising his appearance and making a judgement about him- Kate was a firm believer in judging a book by its cover. And, she thought with a disdainful sniff, he was not the type of man she would normally associate with. The men she spoke to were usually tall, muscled and tanned; whilst this man may have been tall, he was also thin and wiry with tousled, sandy hair that hung around his face and flopped over his ears. His eyes, a shockingly pale blue, regarded her and he gave her a small polite smile, one that she did not return.

"Ugh. Are _you_ the other security guard?" Kate was never one to mince words. The man's smile faltered, and he raised an eyebrow.

"Yes. My name's Mike Schmidt." He extended a hand, but Kate pushed it away abruptly; she did not want to get whatever germs he could have on his fingers onto her pristine skin.

" I don't do handshakes." She set her bag down on the floor, a moment after considering if that was really a good idea- the floor was probably dirty, and what if there was gum there? Not taking her eyes off Mike, she took a seat in an empty swivel chair against the wall, curling her lip at some of the posters for the hotel that invaded her peripheral vision.

"Okay, let's get this stupid job started." She figured that it was going to be an easy task, and hoped to interact with Mike as little as possible. The manager had told her that one guard would patrol the hallways, and one would man the cameras. Kate had already decided, without paying any thought to Mike's preferences, that _she_ would be the one to patrol the hallways, since it seemed just a little less boring than sitting in an office, staring mindlessly at security cameras for six hours. Reaching down into her bag, she began to pull out the company flashlight she had received. "Let's just-"

But her phrase was cut off when an audible click sounded overhead, making her head snap up, eyes searching the room for whatever had made that sound; she knew that it could not have been something simple like a settling floorboard or tree branch breaking outside- the noise was deliberate and loud.

"What was that?" She turned her gaze back onto Mike commandingly, as though whatever the noise was had been his fault. She was surprised to see that the whole tone of his face had changed, from polite and slightly startled by her brusque demeanour to grim. His mouth was set in a tight line and his eyes were eerily deep now, filled with a sense of knowledge that Kate didn't understand at first.

"I think that's our warning." His voice was soft, even; it sent shivers down Kate's spine, though she tried to hide it by shifting in her seat. "It's midnight."

There was a pause, a beat where they both remained silent, and then a scoff broke through Kate's lips at his sincerity. Mike blinked, taken aback.

"So what?" She stretched out in her chair lazily, toying with a strand of her hair. "It's midnight. Big deal. We've got six hours until this stupid shift is over."

Mike shook his head gently, hair flicking over his eyes as he did. "No, Kate. Midnight is when it starts."

_Oh great. This guy's nuts_. Kate thought sourly, fixing him with a patronising look.

"_Yes,_ Mike." She said sarcastically, drawing out her words as though she was speaking to a child. "Midnight is when our shift starts. And when it gets to six, it will be over."

A groan emitted from Mike's throat and he pulled his security guard's cap off, tugging at his hair in what seemed to be a nervous habit.

"You don't understand," His voice was no longer careful and even but frustrated, stumbling over his words. Kate continued to stare at him; she didn't understand, and she had no clue what he was going on about.

"Midnight is when they come alive, Kate. They're after us, and I think they want to kill us."

Kate raised a finely manicured eyebrow, wheeling her chair back a few inches from his.

_Definitely nuts. Ugh! I can't believe my luck._ She decided, staring at Mike in case he decided to lunge at her or something.

"What want to kill us?" Her voice was, once again, dripping with disdain and sarcasm. "The Aliens? The FBI? The furniture?" She knew it probably wasn't good to egg him on, but she was extremely irritated now. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Mike's blue gaze met hers, and his eyes were hard and serious.

"The animatronics."

Kate felt every inch of her skin prickle, and a strange weight settled in her stomach as the two words left his mouth. Her lips parted, ready to shoot back some kind of rebuttal or sarcastic remark, but the words died on her tongue. Because deep down, Kate had the strangest feeling that he was telling the truth.

_Don't be stupid._ She attempted to chide herself. _There's no way those old tin can toasters are 'alive'._

But the memory of their eyes, and the intelligence that radiated from them, made Kate a little unsure of that. She realised that she was frozen now, eyes locked on Mike's, body tense.

"I don't believe you." She lied, forcing a laugh into her voice. "The animatronics can't come alive. That's ridiculous. They're just a bunch of wires and circuits. They're just-"

A phone rang suddenly, and Kate almost toppled out her chair with shock, dropping her flashlight onto the ground. She stared at the phone on the desk hesitantly, as though it was a poisonous snake, but she steeled herself.

"Uh..." Kate cleared her throat, begrudgingly looking back at Mike. "Should I..."

Mike's face was once again grim, and he eyed the phone critically.

"It'll be a pre-recorded message." He informed her slowly. "Last time I worked here, the previous night guard left one for me as well."

The phone was still chirping away in the background but Kate, never one to miss an opportunity to fry, folded her arms.

"How do you know that?" She argued. "And did you say you used to work here?"

The phone continued to ring and, ignoring Kate's inquisition, Mike stood up swiftly.

"Well, I'll answer it, then." He sighed, reaching past Kate and flicking a button on the phone. A man's voice began to echo throughout the small room.

"_Hello? Hello?_" The man called out, voice crackly and distorted. "_Hey, they asked me to record a message for you, since you're starting your first night here._"

Kate rolled her eyes. "Get on with it." She muttered, and Mike shot her a look of disbelief.

"_Welcome to Freddy Fazbear's hotel, a fun resort for all the family! At this point, I've been asked to state that as usual, Freddy's is not responsible for death and dismemberment!_"

"Wait, what?" Kate squawked, sitting up a little straighter. "What the-"

Mike shushed her and she gave him an indignant look, hating anyone telling her what to do, but she stopped talking nonetheless as the recorded message played.

"_Okay, so you might be wondering why I have to say that. The thing is, some of the animatronics tend to wander about a little bit at night. Well..._" There was a hesitant laugh. "_All of them do, actually._"

Kate felt her blood run cold at this. Mike had been right after all.

_"No one's really sure why, but since they've done it in the last three locations, the theory is that the manufacturers can't program them with a separate nightmode, so instead of switching them off at night and risking damaging their servos permanently, they get free roam."_

"Free roam?" A yelp slipped from Kate's mouth before she could compose herself, and Mike's eyes slid to her, giving her a knowing look.

"_Anyway, the problem is that the animatronics aren't programmed to expect people out their rooms out of hours, so if they see you wandering around between midnight and 6am, then they'll assume that you're not a person, but a spare endoskeleton._" There was a strained, awkward laugh. "_And they... uh... might try to put you into a spare animatronic suit..._" another irritatingly false laugh. _"Which will probably kill you. Well, definitely kill you._"

Kate's chair toppled over and hit the floor with a crash. She hadn't even registered standing up until she realised that she was on her feet.

"_Don't worry, though, I'm sure there won't be a problem! Just keep checking the cameras, and shutting the door if you need to... not that you probably will need to... Good luck! Uh, not that you'll need luck, because nothing's going to happen!_"

The message call cut off with a click, and Kate let out a furious shriek, turning towards Mike.

"Why didn't you try to warn me?" She snapped, making Mike's eyebrows shoot up in shock.

"I did," he countered calmly, folding his arms. "And you know very well that I did."

Kate shook her head furiously, snatching her bag from the ground.

"Well, there's no way in hell I'm staying here tonight." She snapped, turning towards the darkened doorway. "I'm going. Now."

She made a move to storm out, but something stopped her; Mike had grabbed her arm, tugging her back in. Kate gave him a seething glare.

"Don't touch me." She said coldly, and Mike rolled his eyes.

"Listen, you can't go now." He snapped; he was trying to remain calm, but his patience with Kate was wearing thin. "If you go out there, they'll get you."

Kate opened her mouth to rebut him, but choked on the words as what he had said sunk in. Though she hated to admit it, he was right; if the animatronics really did wander around the building at night, then she would probably run into one on her way to the car, and then... the thought made her shudder. And, she realised with a thrill of horror, one of the security guards was 'supposed' to be patrolling the hallways. There was no way in hell she was doing that now.

"Well, what am I supposed to do?" she spat accusingly, tugging her arm from Mike's grasp and making a dramatic show of wiping it on her uniform. Mike leaned back in his chair slightly, picking up the tablet that was on the desk.

"You-" he paused, before correcting himself. "_We_ have to make it to 6am."

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><p><strong>Was it good? I didn't get so many reviews on the last chapter which I guess was fair enough because it wasn't the best, I'm hoping that this one is better, though!<strong>

**By the way, no, the phone guy in this is not supposed to be the same phone guy as in the first two games (because he's dead.) **

**Who else is counting down the days until Five Nights at Freddy's 3 is released? Are you looking forward to it? I certainly am. Review and tell me what you are most excited about ;)**


	5. The beginning

**Thank you for all the encouraging reviews, I really appreciate them!**

**I don't own the rights to the Five Nights at Freddy's series.**

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><p>"We have to make it to 6am."<p>

Mike forced himself to spit the words out, his voice wavering slightly. Kate's features distorted further, into a look of sheer disbelief, before she threw her hands up.

"You're joking," She all but shrieked, Mike flinching at the hysteria in her voice. "You have got to be joking! There is NO WAY we can make it to 6 am with those THINGS wandering about!"

"We can." Mike wasn't fully sure of this, but he was trying to reassure both Kate and himself. Kate narrowed her eyes at him.

"How?" She snapped, whirling around and gesturing towards the darkness that shrouded the doorways to the office. "Feel free to explain how the hell you know that-"

"Because," Mike cut her off gently, holding up a hand to silence her rant. It wasn't that he didn't sympathise with Kate- her reaction was mostly justified, considering the fact that she had just received news of the very real possibility of death- but he knew that they needed to stay calm and focused if they were going to survive the night. Kate was eating up time arguing with him, and if they let their guard down for too long then an animatronic could appear at the doorway.

"Because," he repeated, crossing his arms. "I've managed it."

There was a beat of silence, and then Kate snorted.

"Yeah. Right." It was clear from her tone that she did not believe him. "And then you willingly chose to come back for some reason, as well."

Mike frowned slightly; he was already wrestling with himself over his decision to come back, and he did not appreciate Kate questioning that- it just fed the niggling doubts and frustrations with himself that were bubbling under the surface, asking him why the hell he had returned to Freddy's.

"Yeah, pretty much," He told Kate simply. "I have my reasons for coming back."

For some reason, Mike's gut told him that now was not the time to reveal his plans to catch out what went on at Freddy Fazbear's after hours. He wasn't sure if it was out of mistrust, or if he was just concerned that she would fuel his doubts even further, but he decided against it, picking up the tablet that sat on the desk.

"If you're going to be working with me, then you need to be careful," Mike informed her, his voice businesslike. "You have to stay vigilant and on your guard. It's the only way to survive in this place."

Kate regarded him shrewdly, then a scoff burst through her lips. She shook her head slightly, as though there was some joke Mike had made that she had missed. Mike's brow furrowed as he tried to figure out what had caused this sudden change in temperament, when barely a minute ago she had been shrieking at him.

"I can't believe it. The solution's so obvious, only an idiot wouldn't get it," Kate muttered loudly, stalking across the floor and promptly pressing the red button on the wall; the right door shut with an echoing thud. Before Mike could protest, she streaked across to the other one, slamming it shut as well before turning around with a ridiculously smug expression on her face.

"The creeps can't get in now," She sniffed. "Problem solved."

The look on her face was one of sheer superiority and arrogance, though it began to fade when Mike chuckled humourlessly. He knew it was insensitive, but he could not help the laughs that burst from his mouth.

"What?" Kate snapped, sobering. "What's your problem."

Mike did not respond, but hastily moved across and pressed the buttons, releasing the two doors again. It took a moment for Kate to register what he was doing, and then she gaped at him, appalled.

"What the hell?" She snapped. "Why did you open the doors agin?"

Mike shook his head slightly, giving Kate a firm stare. "Only close the doors in an emergency," he muttered softly. Kate stared at him incredulously.

"Are you kidding?" A slender arm reached for the door button again. Mike grabbed her wrist before she could press the button, and she tugged furiously at his grip. "Ugh! Let me go! Do you want me to die?"

"Look," Mike grunted, trying his hardest to keep Kate from getting to either of the door buttons without actually knocking her to the ground, though he had to admit that it was tempting to do so. "If you close the doors, the power will drain!"

"Don't be stupid," Kate yelled, trying to lunge around Mike and reach one of the doors. "It's a hotel! The power can't just drain like that!"

Mike stopped for a moment, cocking his head at her.

"The security office is on a different generator to the rest of the hotel," He reminded her, before frowning. "Didn't Mr Stone explain that to you when you came in to apply?"

Kate bit her lip for a moment, as though trying to dig down into her memory, before shrugging.

"Maybe. I wasn't really listening to what he said." She dismissed, and Mike blinked for a moment at her totally indifferent attitude, before steeling himself back on topic.

"Anyway, if the power goes out, the doors won't shut at all," he stressed. Kate's face still showed that she was not getting it, and he suppressed a groan of frustration.

"And?" Kate prompted. Mike wondered if she was being intentionally dense about this.

"_And,_ the animatronics will get in." He shuddered at the memory of the toreador march serenading him darkly from a blackened hallway, and Freddy's face flashing in the gloom. Mike wasn't sure if that was what would happen here, but from the warning he got about monitoring the power, he suspected that _something_ would happen, and he could only hope he would never have to find out what it was. Kate finally seemed to get it and he saw a sheet of fear flit across her face, before her features assumed the same nonchalant look as before.

"Oh." Her tone was clipped, as though she was intentionally trying to stay calm. Mike did not buy it; he doubted anyone would be able to stay calm when they were faced with a situation like this. Even with the preparation he had done beforehand, Mike was struggling not to let his hands shake, so he was almost certain that inside Kate must have been terrified, having this only just thrust upon her. Then again, maybe knowing what he was in for made the situation worse for him, whereas Kate could still be in denial having not actually seen any proof of the animatronics' activity...

Mike's train of thought cut off abruptly when he realised, with a sharp intake of breath, that he had been neglecting the cameras. Frantically, he flicked the monitor on his tablet up, growing uneasy when he noticed just how many cameras there were. Keeping track of them would definitely be a nightmare.

Kate leaned over his shoulder, her hair tickling his face irritatingly as she stared down at the tablet while Mike flicked through different cameras. The picture was as bad as it had been before, he noted with a sigh. In the darkened images of the rooms, the animatronics that appeared on the screens looked even more menacing. He tried to remember where they were supposed to be as he flicked through the cameras briskly. The Cat animatronic was still in place in the hallway, as was the Raccoon, and it was a small relief for Mike. He hoped desperately that the animatronics would not all be active on the first night- while it would mean that he would get footage of all of them moving about and hopefully not have to return to the hotel, it would also be extremely difficult to keep them all at bay when he didn't know about their movements yet.

His hand flicked towards another camera on the map, and a view of the pool appeared. An area that had seemed almost perfect in the day time was downright frightening now; the potted palms that surrounded the pool looked almost like clawed hands grasping at the air in the grainy camera feed, the water unnaturally still and smooth. And the shark animatronic- Sammy, he recalled- stood in the midst of it all. Though he had not moved from his podium in the centre of the pool, the sight of him still made Mike's heart, which was already racing, beat a little faster; the solid black eyes were reminiscent of deep caverns in the moonlight, shadowed and enigmatic.

"The Shark is weird," he heard Kate criticise from above him. Rolling his eyes at her childish words, he flicked the camera again.

The playrgound. The two animatronics that resided there, Doug the Dog and Harold the Hamster, had not moved yet. Mike thought that he should feel some form of relief that none of the animatronics had moved yet, but there was still and odd gnawing feeling in his gut that kept him alert. He checked the clock- there was still a long time to go before it reached 1 am. There was plenty of time for the animatronics to begin to get active...

The lobby. (Freddy had not moved.) The show stage. (Bonnie and Chica were still in position.) Pirate cove. (Foxy had not even begun to peer through the curtains yet.)

Parts and services. Mike flicked to this camera, before almost dropping the tablet in shock.

He hadn't been in parts and services on his tour of the place. The manager had just dismissed it, though he remembered him mentioning that there was another animatronic, a lion, that had malfunctioned and was residing in there for the time being. It was the lion animatronic that Mike saw now, and though he hated to admit it, it was terrifying. It lay across a table in the parts and services room, its body damaged and dented, wires hanging from limbs that looked close to dropping off. A thick, matted mane surrounded the lion's head, and from what Mike could see, one of its eyes was missing, revealing an empty black socket. As Mike stared at the camera, he could have sworn the lion twitched slightly, and he jumped back.

"What? Scared of a little broken robot?" Kate muttered drily from behind him, but he could hear the slight tremor in her voice, and could sense that she was just as unnerved by the lion as he was.

"I want to keep an eye on him," Mike decided, before reluctantly setting down the tablet. Kate's face puckered in yet another frown.

"Why are you putting that down?" she demanded, making a move to snatch the tablet back up, though Mike stopped her.

"Continually using that can drain the power," he warned her sharply, and was surprised when for once Kate did not argue with his words, but withdrew and flopped back down in her hydraulic chair, starting to gyrate in it slightly. Mike hesitated for a moment, then pushed his chair across the room a few feet, the wheels scraping across scuffed linoleum as he propelled towards the door. He had figured this way out during his first shift, and that it was easier to do this than continually get up and walk towards each door. Pressing a hand against the metal wall to stop himself from rolling out into the hallway accidentally, Mike flicked the light button on. A wave of relief swept over him when he saw there was no animatronic waiting for him there, and he turned to Kate.

"Check that light."

He thought it was a fair enough request, and expected Kate to comply. But he should have known better; Kate scowled at him, crossing her arms.

"I don't have to do what you tell me," she said haughtily, and Mike groaned. Her defiance was ridiculous; he couldn't believe that she was arguing just for the sake of it, when there was so much at stake.

"Are you joking?" he was beginning to lose his patience with her, and it showed in the strain of his voice. "There could be an animatronic there! And if you don't shut the door quickly enough, then they'll jam it!"

"What, with their magic robot powers?" Kate huffed sarcastically, before shaking her head. "Look, I don't follow 'orders'. You want the light switched on? You do it yourself."

"But you're right there-" Mike argued, but was cut off when Kate flicked her manicured hand up to silence him.

"Fine. But I'm going to complain to the manager that you're being rude the first chance I get." She announced childishly, reminding Mike of a petulant toddler as she slammed her hand on the light button. The doorway was illuminated, presenting a view of the corridor, and Mike exhaled in relief; there was nothing there, except a grimy wall covered with a handful of posters and a bulletin board. Kate cocked her head at him as if to say "I told you so", but he ignored this; he was learning the best way to deal with her was to ignore her.

Midnight dragged on. Kate barely did anything, except occasionally checking the door when asked. Mike recalled that the manager had told them one guard needed to patrol the corridors, but there was no way he was going to let Kate, annoying as she was, do that, let alone do it himself; walking around where the animatronics lurked without any protection was basically like signing a death wish, and he just hoped that he could make it through the week without the manager finding out and enquiring why they had not left the guard's office at all.

While Kate fiddled with her nails and preened her hair, Mike vigilantly checked the cameras. Nothing was happening this first hour, but he had expected that; he recalled that the first night was the least active for the animatronics. Setting the tablet down, though keeping it close to him so that he could quickly flick through the monitors when needed, Mike reached into his battered rucksack and dug around for a few moments, before pulling out his flask of coffee. Pouring himself a generous amount into a plastic mug, he took a sip. Kate's face snapped towards him, and she looked longingly at the flask.

"What's that?"

Mike looked down at his cup. "Coffee." He hesitated, before doing the obligatory thing. "Want some?"

Kate stared critically at the cup. "Is it a mocha latte with skim milk and cocoa foam?"

Mike suppressed a snort at this. "No. It's black coffee."

"Then no, I don't want some," Kate declined, turning back to the magazine she had brought with her. Mike sighed, picking up the tablet once more. It was 1 am; the last hour had passed surprisingly quickly, and it was both relieving and terrifying- if an hour had passed, then it meant that the animatronics were likely to become active sometime soon. He began flicking through the cameras again strategically; the first hallway, then the lobby, then the pool... nothing seemed to be out of place, and he was about to relax again when he flicked the camera onto the second hallway.

The breath hitched in Mike's throat and he froze, eyes locking on the image the security camera displayed. Instead of standing to attention at the end of the hallway as he had been doing earlier, Roger the Raccoon had moved. He was now halfway down the hall, currently unmoving but crouched in a position as though he was about to lunge at the camera any second now. His black-tipped mouth was open, baring his teeth, and behind them another, smaller set of teeth that Mike hoped were only the endoskeleton.

A shriek made his head snap round, fears of the seeing the animatronics launching themselves towards him whirling through Mike's mind, but a second later his brain registered it as being Kate. She was staring in horror at the camera, her already wide eyes even larger.

"Oh my God," she gaped, and for the first time since he had met her Mike noticed that she was actually acting human. "It's moved. It's actually moved."

Mike nodded solemnly. With a hand that had barely escaped shaking, he flicked the monitor to another camera for a moment, before quickly turning it back onto the hallway and jumping back. Roger had moved again; his face was all but pressed up against the camera, mouth pulled back in what almost looked like a snarl, so close to the lens that Mike could see every faint mark and stain in the pelt that covered his robotic body.

"It's starting," he told Kate, and for once she remained silent.

* * *

><p>"Don't put that tablet down," Kate barked at Mike, as he tried to set the device back down on the desk. "You can't put it down, even for one second, or that thing will move again."<p>

She was totally lost right now, unsure of how she should feel. It was clear to her that the whole animatronics walking about in the night thing was not just some practical joke, but something serious; the fact that Roger the Raccoon had been moving proved it to her, and though she had already somewhat accepted it, seeing the animatronics moving made it _real_.

"I have to," Mike reminded her. "Otherwise the power-"

"Will drain. Yeah, yeah," Kate finished for him, trying to take a hold of herself and bring back her blasé attitude, though this was exceedingly difficult as inside she was unravelling quickly. "Fine. Just check it as often as possible."

Mike opened his mouth to say something, but seemed to think better of it. Instead, he took another swig from his coffee, Kate's nose wrinkling at the thought- she just didn't understand how anyone could drink black coffee. She preferred her coffee to be precisely made by a barista, with just the right amount of foam on top sprinkled generously with cocoa powder. As soon as this hellish night was over, she thought, she would be treating herself to a mocha...

Mike cursed beside her under his breath, and Kate turned to look at him questioningly.

"Lovely language," she muttered sarcastically, though this was hypocritical as she had been known to swear her head off at any number of people, usually reserving that sort of 'language' for teachers, college professors and her parents.

"Look." Mike pushed the tablet towards her and she looked for a moment, before a gasp broke through her calm façade.

The hallway, which just a few minutes ago had been displaying the Raccoon animatronic, was now totally empty. The camera stared down nothing but a bare strip of carpet, flanked by numbered doors; there was neither hide nor hair of Roger.

"Where did he go?" Kate asked, her voice climbing with each word. Mike shook his head.

"I'm not sure..."

He took the tablet back briskly, flicking through the cameras as Kate watched over his shoulder. Roger was not anywhere to be seen; they could not find him in any of the corridors, amongst the other animatronics, or lurking behind the dustbins outside the hotel. Mike looked extremely concerned, and Kate found this more disturbing than she would have liked to admit.

"What the hell?" she was starting to panic now, despite herself. "What do we do? What if he's gone outside the hotel grounds?"

"He won't have," Mike reassured her, sounding oddly certain. "Not while there's security guards in the building."

This remark made Kate narrow her eyes at him, suspicious now.

"What do you mean, 'not while there's security guards in the building'?" she snapped, flicking a strand of her hair viciously out of her eyes. "Are you trying to tell me that-"

**_Thud._**

"What was that?" Kate quickly changed subject, staring at Mike, whose face was grim and ashen.

**_Thud. Thud._**

"It means that Roger's somewhere close to us,"

_**Thud. **_

It was Kate's turn to curse under her breath now. Her heart was racing, threatening to pound out her chest, and she whirled around frantically in her chair, staring at the doorway.

"Whatdowedo?" her words blended together unintelligibly in her state of panic, hands fumbling for the light switch.

**_Thud._**

"Turn the light on," Mike instructed, and she was amazed that he was able to keep so calm about this. That was, until she turned her head slightly, and saw the strained expression on his face, his eyebrows high up his forehead and his mouth set in a tight line. For once, Kate did not argue and flicked the light on, staring out into the corridor. It was empty, and she was all but shaking with relief at the sight. She turned to face Mike, watching intently as he flicked the light on and-

Kate screamed shrilly, falling backwards and knocking her chair down, scrambling to her feet. In the grimy window on Mike's side of the room, a face was peering into the office. Bright yellow eyes, surrounded by a mask of black... Roger the Raccoon was staring into their room, his face still set in a grin that seemed sinister rather than friendly right now. Slowly, he raised one of his animatronic hands, before tapping very deliberately at the glass. Kate could not help herself; another loud scream echoed around the room. As Roger began to shift closer to the doorway, Mike immediately pushed himself towards the button, and just before Roger could appear in the doorway the large hydraulic door slammed shut with a heavy thud, sealing the office from the Raccoon.

"Please stop screaming," Mike murmured, and Kate growled slightly at him.

"I'll scream if I bloody want to," she yelled, brushing off her clothes and gesturing to the door. "That _thing_ out there is going to kill us!"

"Kate, I understand why you're scared," Mike sighed slightly. "But if you want to survive, you really have to keep a calm head, otherwise you'll slip up and one of the animatronics will get in."

Kate just shot him a scathing look, flicking her corridor's light once more before pulling her knocked over chair from the floor. She could not calm herself down- it was not physically _possible_ right now.

"Is it still there?"

Mike flicked on the light, and she jumped back again. Roger was still at the window, only this time his face was in a different position- he looked almost... annoyed. A black-tipped hand slammed into the window with such force that Kate was surprised (and relieved) it didn't shatter. The two guards stayed frozen, staring at the animatronic as he gazed in at them.

"Oh my God, what are we going to do?" Kate tugged at her hair anxiously. Mike gently shushed her, and when he turned around she stuck her tongue out childishly at the back of his head.

"We just have to wait," he murmured. "He'll go away eventually... I hope."

"What do you mean, 'I HOPE'?" Kate's voice turned shrill again and she noticed Mike cringe. Roger the Raccoon's head snapped towards her, and slowly he crooked a finger, as though he was beckoning. Kate swallowed heavily, standing up.

"I have to get the hell out of here," she announced dramatically. "I don't care if I have to climb up onto the roof or something, there is no way I am staying here!"

Mike ignored her dramatic spiel, hesitating for a moment before pressing the light button so that the window was bathed in darkness again. Kate cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Why did you-" she began, before shaking her head with a groan. "Of course. It 'saves power'."

She said this in a mocking way, as though Mike's concerns of draining the power meant nothing. Mike just shook his head slightly at her, before checking the tablet.

The time seemed to drag for Kate, each minute weighing heavily and getting under her skin. Though she would never be one to admit any of her own flaws, she was impatient and was dying to check the window to see if Roger had disappeared. However, for some reason Mike was all too eager to leave it for the time being, though he kept the door shut. Kate fiddled with her hair, her nails, and the buttons on her shirt repeatedly, occassionally flicking the light on her door on to make sure there wasn't another animatronic there, until finally after what felt like hours (though it had been less than half an hour) Mike reached over to flick the light on.

Roger was still there.

Kate swore loudly at this.

"Why is he still there?" she yelled, before looking Roger straight in his yellow eyes, trying to push back her uneasiness with doing so. "Shoo. You, Raccoon thing- GO AWAY."

"Kate, don't provoke him," Mike warned, but Kate shot him a dagger-like glare and turned back to Roger.

"Leave us alone, you little metal freak-"

However, she was cut off when a metal fist slammed into the window with a force that made the glass, strong as it was, shudder. Then, the animatronic growled. A strange, mechanical noise issued from his throat, guttural and eerie, sending chills down Kate's spine.

"I told you not to provoke him." Mike reminded her, running a hand through his hair nervously as he watched Roger. Kate hated being reprimanded, but for once she didn't instantly fly into a rage at this, and instead found herself slinking back to her chair. Roger continued to glare at them, and his fist slammed into the window, making Kate jump once more. She could not believe this- it was like a nightmare, or something out of a horror movie- this was absolutely terrifying...

"Keep calm," Mike muttered out the corner of his mouth. "He'll go away soon enough if you just stay quiet and leave him alone."

Kate highly doubted that, though.

Roger stared through the window for a few more minutes at Mike and Kate's frozen forms, then giving them another irritated glance he began to move away, making the same loud thuds as before. The two security guards stared after him for a moment, and then Mike reached for the door button.

"What are you doing? It'll just come back!" Kate objected, and was infuriated when Mike shook her head- she was getting pretty sick of him disagreeing with her.

"No, he won't. Not yet, anyway. I have to do this, or the power will run out."

Despite herself, Kate found herself cowering slightly as the door slid upwards, half expecting Roger to reappear any second and rush into the office. Feeling extremely on edge, she lowered herself into her chair again, indicating the tablet.

"Check the cameras, Mick." She instructed. Mike raised an eyebrow.

"Mike." he corrected. Kate shrugged indifferently, though she had actually known what his name was- she would deliberately 'forget' names of people she considered unimportant. Still, with a little sigh Mike picked up the tablet and began to flick through the images again. Roger, it appeared, was now lurking in the dining area, which was a little too close for comfort in Kate's opinion, though she had to begrudgingly admit that at least his loud footsteps in the hallway were a giveaway.

"Okay. Roger's there, so I'll keep an eye on him for now. Freddy's where he's supposed to be... so is Sammy... the dog and the hamster are still in the playground... the cat is still in the hallway..." Mike muttered a constant stream of commentary as he looked through the grainy camera feed, though Kate was not sure if he was talking for her benefit or just to himself- she though disdainfully that he was probably talking to himself; he seemed the type to do that, she decided.

"What about the other two?" she asked after a few moments. "That weird bird thing and the purple rabbit."

"Bonnie and Chica," Mike corrected softly, making Kate roll her eyes- why he would stick up for two animatronics that, as far as Kate was concerned, were sadistic and monstrous, in any way was beyond her.

"Like I care," she muttered, though Mike was no longer listening to her; his brow was furrowed in a frown as he looked at the tablet, and despite herself Kate was instantly concerned.

"What? What is it?" she demanded pushily, shoving him out the way so she could look at the tablet.

The dim light in the restaurant area barely illuminated the show stage, but it was easy enough for Kate to see why Mike was suddenly concerned; the stage was completely bare, the curtains parted aside to reveal nothing.

Two animatronics were gone. Kate looked at the clock, before blanching.

It wasn't even two am yet, and already there were three animatronics they had to deal with.

Even she, despite her nonchalant attitude, knew that this was a bad thing.

* * *

><p><strong>Okay, did you like it? I hoped you enjoyed this chapter :)<strong>

**Next chapter will show the rest of the first night, and some of the aftermath. And spoiler alert; night one will definitely be easy compared to the others, especially as soon one of the guards is going to be forced to patrol the corridors with only a torch! And soon they may start to learn the backstories of the animatronics and that nothing is necessarily as it seems...**

**Also, five nights at Freddy's 3 is upon us! Are you excited? I've been playing it, and I have to admit that it is pretty terrifying. Although, having said that, I still think the first game was my favourite. Have you played FNAF 3 and what did you think of it?**


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